From "Brace yourselves for Kamala Harris vs Donald Trump 2024" by Lionel Shriver (The Spectator).
November 6, 2021
"In my broadly shared dread that Republicans will nominate you-know-who yet again, I sometimes postulate desperately that..."
"... maybe we’ll all be saved by a deus ex machina, and the previous poser in the White House will be struck by some debilitating ailment. I’d settle for incurable laryngitis. Or maybe the guy could break out in hard, goitrous globules of insoluble lard. After all, when the supermodel Linda Evangelista had this adverse reaction to a fat-freezing procedure, she became a shut-in! ... I’m not the first to suppose that Biden... might serve only one term. Nor am I the only one who considers America’s vice-president an incompetent dolt who harbours no genuine political convictions, emits a compulsive, mirthless cackle under stress and only achieved her office by dint of sex, ethnicity and race.... Maybe something will indeed come out of left field, and I won’t have to face it. But right now I’m looking in wide-eyed horror at Kamala vs the Donald in 2024, as if standing mid-motorway with the two headlights of an HGV barrelling towards me and not being able to move."
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Harris is worse than Hillary. And after two or three years with Harris in the oval office, Trump will likely look like a distinguished statesman in comparison.
HGV = heavy goods vehicle
That's a European term. I had to look it up.
After the shellacking in Virginia, when 13 Rinos voted to give Nasty Nancy her way, don't be surprised if Trump wins everything. Why bother with Rinos who always cave to the insane, when you can get the only one who will fight for US?? Screw Congress. Screw the Rinos. Trump 2024!!!
Huh. I figured that J.K. Rowling's TERF status would have put the kibosh on the left using Harry Potter references, but I guess Trump is still their Voldemort.
Trump isn’t the nominee in 2024. It’s time for people to realize that. It’s Florida or Texas governors.
Who thinks Heels Up Harris is going to be in politics in 3 years?
She certainly wont be the democrat nominee.
"...only achieved her office by dint of sex, ethnicity and race...."
By "sex" the writer is referring to being female, right, not the way she advanced her career?
The Democrats challenge has been the same since 2016. They should be investigating who gave complete control of the party to the Clinton campaign, who sabotaged Bernie's campaigned, who promoted Trump to disrupt the Republican primaries. Only after that's done can they become a normal party again. The problem is that solution will require cutting ties with their financial backers, as well as a desk-by-desk fight through academia, think tanks, and foundations.
wendybar: "After the shellacking in Virginia, when 13 Rinos voted to give Nasty Nancy her way, don't be surprised if Trump wins everything."
I suspect that there are many more republicans who understand that any republican-based "counter-revolution" against what our resident marxists/Maoists are doing must be culture based, not economic based (reject the Paul Ryan/Romney "playbook" which is Surrender All Cultural Issues To The Left And Give Lots Of Money To The Chamber Of Commerce For Open Borders) and can use the same tools the left has used in the past to execute the counter-revolution.
This more populist anti-establishment and working class strategy tied to an aggressive anti-woke culture approach is the recipe that took VA, even for a CEO of Carlyle Group!
Of course, Youngkin could easily revert to form and become the Massachusetts Romney of VA....which would be disastrous. But the GOP ain't called the Stupid Party (see the 13 idiots in the House who saved Nancy and Joe last night) for nothing.
There are quite a few of these woke culture counter-revolutionaries with the right economic anti-establishment (America First) mindsets and the willingness to fight the left on their own turf, so Trump doesn't have to be the only one carrying that banner any longer and I suspect he will play "kingmaker" only in 2024....assuming those he endorses in 2022 win across the board which they probably will considering how things are shaping up electorally.
Apparently there is no cure for TDS. It's a worse disease than COVID-19. At least with COVID you get over it within days or weeks. TDS controls your life forevermore. Sort of like the zombie apocalypse - TDS infected people roaming the streets looking to infect others.
Aren't these the people who are constantly accusing non-leftists of believing in conspiracies? Can anything top TDS?
Trump is too old, Kamala is too *ugh*
Please - can we get some other people in there?
HGV = Heavy Goods Vehicle - a truck over 7700 pounds (3500 kg)
Can we Assume,
that The Reason Lionel Shriver 'dreads' the 2024 matchup, is 'cause she KNOWS who would win?
thought so!
There will be a small stampede of Dem elected officials to run over Harris just like the first time. She isn't building any track record to speak of.
See Walter Kern at the end of Wright and Kaus Kern on what Trump meant to people who voted for him.
What is supposed to be so terrible about Trump? Other than a nearly-secure southern border, the Abraham Accords, a thriving economy with minorities benefiting most, US energy independence, Russia/China/Iran back on their heels, an end to kow-towing to credentialed globalist bossy-boots, an effective COVID vaccine in an "impossible" time frame, the beginnings of control over the Federal regulatory octopus, etc., etc.?
Nearly all of which have been frittered away by Biden/Harris in just over nine months, in addition to the additional damage they have caused with their lockdowns, mandates, massive spending, and general incoherence. Having Trump back will seem like Christmas after this.
Nothing like Lionel from Sanford & Son.
NPW = nasty piece of work.
Harris won’t be the Dem nominee, so he doesn’t have to worry about that half of the equation.
I don’t think Trump will be the Rep nominee either, and I don’t want him to be, but Trump was a much better president than most people expected and there’s reason to be hopeful that he learned from past mistakes about who to trust in Washington so that he’s likely to be even better the next time around. Still, I’d prefer not to have the mean tweets again and, right now, the Reps have a deep enough bench that they can afford to give Trump a medal and keep him on the rally circuit.
Leftist hysteria might be enough to bring him back.
She’s been in England too long. Motorway. HGV.
Out of “left field” is a dead metaphor. But at least it’s an American one.
Lionel presumes (with his "broadly shared dread") that all the cognoscenti agree with him. He presumes too much.
" I’m not the first to suppose that Biden... might serve only one term. " Actually, I think that he's probably one of the last people to realize that there's no way that Biden would be up to serving a second term. (or be able to get elected to a second term.)
Yeah, well...I'm of two minds on this. Trump vs Harris would be...well...either the greatest spectacle since Moses decided to hand over the 15...er, 10 Commandments. Or it would be virtually unwatchable for months. I love that Trump does not care one whit about the media, and would come in knowing the entirety of the careerists- the Deep State- are out for his blood. He would be shining bright lights under rocks all over Washington. And that would be worth it.
Moses delivers the Commandments
On the other hand, so many have been so hammered on hating Trump that I'm not sure he'd get elected. I AM sure that Ron DeSantis would. And probably in a landslide. With that in mind, I'm leaning heavily toward my Guv. That said, I'd hate to lose him as our Guv.
Well, if it's Harris vs. Trump then get yourself ready for a repeat of the 1892 election. Especially if it's true that the number of American green card holders left behind in Afghanistan really is on the order of 14,000, and doubly true if it turns out that we brought back unvetted Afghans in place of US citizens and green card holders. Not to mention if Biden and Yellen cannot rein in inflation between now and three years from now. (Which I don't think they can.)
"Are you better off now (in 2024) than you were five years ago?" Any Republican will ask that question. And for most Americans the answer will be negative.
This is just trying to keep the low information lefties in the game for the mid-terms. Ask them to detail exactly what DJT did that's worse than what Biden and Obama have done. Mean tweets? LOL
What amuses me endlessly is that Democrats are just as incompetent in dealing with their base as the GOP leadership is in dealing with MAGA nation. There's a reason Robert Cook doesn't come around anymore and a reason Howard is increasingly cool to the Biden agenda. It's all a sham, and the Dems got even less money in their bill than the 1.7 trillion they previously demanded. Knowing that, it's quite possible that progressives abandoned McAuliffe en masse as the career consultants frantically tried to keep him afloat. You will see this across country in 2022, to the point fraud will either become completely overt or elections will have to be cancelled.
When your only hope is "maybe a man healthier than all three of the Democrat ladership combined will just conk out," it means you have literally nothing, not even hope. Oustanding.
It's unpredictable what the result will be of the passage of the infrastructure bill, with some GOP support. It's possible that it will turn out bad for conservatives, with the Democrats getting their act together sufficiently to pass the social welfare bill, too, and the effects on the economy won't be terrible, and the Democrats will do well in the midterms. It's also possible that passage of the infrastructure bill will lead to collapse of the Democratic coalition supporting the social welfare bill, and that will never be passed, and the Democrats will be consumed by in-fighting during the midterms. I don't blame those GOP representatives who voted for it because their constituents wanted it. What will be will be.
Lionel (f/k/a Margaret Ann) Shriver is just kidding around here. At least I think it's meant as a joke. She and all the other lefties of her ilk are wishing and hoping that Donald Trump will be the GOP nominee for President in 2024.
'After the shellacking in Virginia, when 13 Rinos voted to give Nasty Nancy her way...'
Primary every single one of them.
And get rid of McCarthy.
If he had a backbone he would have held the caucus together...he didn't.
Trump is the black swan that could lead to a significant realignment in politics.
Trump governed as the first conservative since Reagan. He closed the border. He cut taxes. He moved the Israeli embassy to Jerusalem. He took on China. His policies led to energy independence. He made Europe pay an increasing share of their defense.
These policies resulted in full employment, an increasing standard of living for everyone (especially the bottom 40%), four Arab Israeli peace agreements, exposure of the obvious bias of the press, etc.
For these reasons and possibly others, minorities became conservative curious; he increased his minority vote share over his first election. These successes contrast that with Biden's
weak economy and flailing foreign policy. Furthermore, conservatives are scoring a few victories in the culture wars.
Republicans have a real opportunity to make inroads with Hispanic and, to a lesser extent, black voters.
Again, I think Trump makes this possible. Let's see if the Republicans can capitalize on it.
If they aren't lying they aren't democrats. Repubs cut tax breaks for the rich... Ha Ha Ha
https://nypost.com/2021/11/05/dems-just-snuck-a-tax-cut-for-the-rich-into-build-back-better-bill/
If they could read, the dems would change parties. However... reading requires synapse and more.
Most of my life was spent in an environment that reflected sanity for the most part and rejected insanity for the most part. Consequently, I am still taken aback when nincompoops like this one are given a forum to be taken seriously.
“Trump’s policy” of separating families. Seriously? And nary a mention of the disasters being wrought upon us by QuidProJoe or Trump’s achievements. It’s all about the optics. Have these “separation” cases been litigated or is this about the Biden Administration throwing in the towel once again for no apparent reason beyond pleasing a portion of his lunatic base? $450k per family of lawbreakers apprehended during the commission of their crime? Biden bullshit!
This craziness needs at some point to transcend Democrats’ delusional avoidance of cognitive dissonance.
mid-motorway is British.
So who cares one whit what Brits or any other variety of non-Americans thinks about US politics? They have only a surface understanding or us as a people. None of them actually believe in freedom for the masses.
>"The Trump policy of separating illegal-immigrant parents from their children in 2018... True, the policy did have a rationale beyond sheer sadism."<
That's where I stopped reading this dolt's article.
Be a fun debate:
He does his Rickles thing, she laughs.
I'm not at all konvinced it's Kamala for 2024. She did so poorly in 2019 just raising money. And now she's part of a struggling admin. She has zero star power.
Neither am I enthusiastic about Trump in 2024. I wish he had been reelected but now he will be too old. De Santis or Paul or even Noem against whomever the Dems stick themselves with, that's my current preference.
A Trump vs. Kamala debate would be a beat-down of epic proportions. Not only is she unlikable, she's a cackling harridan. Trump would take her lunch money.
Gavin Newsom is the most likely Democrat to be the nominee in 2024 for the Demwits.
This is how mentally ill people bide their time.
"In my broadly shared dread that Republicans will nominate you-know-who yet again"
Well, many Republicans share that dread. But wishing for a deus ex something won't stave it off. Only a superior candidate and semi-rational primary voters.
"the previous poser in the White House will be struck by some debilitating ailment"
Sure, Trump was clownish at times. But a poser? He beat the collusion hoax and impeachments. He took some positive steps against China, for Israel. Economy did well, minorities gained. He made an attempt to secure the border and stem the invasion. Considering the alternative, gimme some more of that posing.
But it would be stupid for the GOP to pick him. The problem is not that he's a poser, the problem is that he's a loser. We don't need no more losers. We need a winner.
I guess there is no need to even look for a "civility bullshit" tag for this post.
The greater the histrionics the less I hear that justifies that. It is almost as if people like Shriver relish being worked up into a tizzy.
"Harris is worse than Hillary."
Yup. Harris got to the top sucking dick. Hillary simply looked the other way. It's an active versus passive thing.
Just call it a truck. Learn from Churchill.
I also strongly dislike how 'an' is now being placed in front of every 'H'.
Most often seen with 'historic'. Who pronounces it "'istoric"?
So, just to be prepared, what happens if the GOP nominates Scott Walker?
Or, for that matter, Ted Cruz?
Or Ron Desantis? Or Rick Scott?
Is there any "variant timeline" where the Democrat party would campaign on the line that:
"Okay, that guy is honest and honorable, but our candidate is even better; that guy has normal policies and traditional priorities but these times demand our progressive innovations instead."
Or will any every and all GOP candidates be demonized?
Lionel makes the larger point about the gift DEMS hand the right with their proposal to award perhaps a billion dollars to families separated at the border. The ads write themselves. I am curious about these “separations.” Have children gone missing or was separation temporary. How many have been reuinted, how many not. How many were in fact blood relatives versus children brought in by mules. She is one of my favorite Spectator writers. Behind or tied with Melissa Kite.
Neither am I enthusiastic about Trump in 2024. I wish he had been reelected but now he will be too old. De Santis or Paul or even Noem against whomever the Dems stick themselves with, that's my current preference.
The only problem is that Republicans have this history of promising the moon and not delivering. Trump delivered far more than I anticipated. DeSantis has a pretty good record. Abbot is iffy. Noem has failed to keep promises. Rand Paul I like but he can get off into libertarian cloud cuckoo land.
BTW, it doesn't matter whether Trump is the 2024 nominee or some different Republican. If it is the latter, then the Democrats and the press will say that the different Republican is just Trump's puppet. Like they tried to do with Youngkin.
Repeat after me. In 2024 the question will be asked again and again. “Are you better off now than you were in 2019?” Thanks to Biden, Harris, Schumer, plus Pelosi caving to the Squad, damned few voters will be able to answer in the affirmative.
Or will any every and all GOP candidates be demonized?
Good one! Or was that a serious question?
Bring it on! "Hyena" Harris .vs. "Mean Tweet" Trump.
And look at what they have accomplished... or not have.
What a dick Lionel is- then I clicked the link.
A pseudonym!!! A male pseudonym, to boot! The article is eh.
My 1st impression holds- but, at least this person isn’t living in the US anymore- thank God for that.
The person who had to drop out of the race before the first ballot was cast in Iowa is going to be the D's nominee next time around?
Right.
For all the people who say they would prefer an alternate to Trump: Why?
Trump is pure as driven snow after 4 years of the accusations, investigations, and impeachments. The left will hit any Republican just as hard as they did Trump, except they will have fresh meat. Trump is immune. Another 'scandal' will roll off his back like water on a duck. A newbie is going to have to put up a fight.
Trump has a rabid untouchable base and a proven record of successfully fulfilling promises. DeSantis nor Abbot can come anywhere near him in either regard.
Foreign leaders are going to know where they stand with Trump. They will be testing anyone else to find the boundaries. Theoretically had Trump had the opportunity to cut some deals with Putin he would have been able to put a lot more pressure on China.
Trump is much more likely to have a lot of Congress on his side this time without the likes of Ryan, Flake, Romney etc. A lot of them will owe their election to Trump. Any red wavers are going to have an alliegence to Trump, not DeSantis or Abbott.
2 million illegals this year. They're going to sending for kin the next 3 years. The illegal population will have doubled since Trump. Who do you trust to handle that mess? Talk's cheap. On that issue alone Trump gets my vote.
I like DeSantis. Abbott maybe. Who knows what will happen in 3 more years. Trump still looks hale and hearty.
Had Trump not beaten Hillary, and I doubt any of the others could have, this country would have already been toast. If your hoping for a red wave in 2022 which seems likely who woke enough people up to the direction we were headed? Give the man his due.
Oh, but all the stoopids will hate us if we elect Trump! Mean tweets oh no! What a bunch of pussies.
Yancey's probably right: Newsom. But his running mate won't be Kamala because she's needed as Sec'y of Interior or some other get-lost position.
Rory said...
"...only achieved her office by dint of sex, ethnicity and race...."
By "sex" the writer is referring to being female, right, not the way she advanced her career?
-------
would gender have been a better word choice? or is that also dis[re]putable
Trump isn’t the nominee (...) It’s time for people to realize that.
Where have I heard this before?
"BTW, it doesn't matter whether Trump is the 2024 nominee or some different Republican. If it is the latter, then the Democrats and the press will say that the different Republican is just Trump's puppet." It does matter. If it is the latter, we will not have to deal with Donald Trump. We can get the benefits of what he accomplished, and stay away from the wreckage that he caused as well.
No matter how highly one might think of Trump, the political reality is that he would be the distraction the Democrats need. Instead of a campaign focused on the awesomely incompetent job Joe, Nancy, and Chuck are doing, we'd get one where Trump's every utterance becomes the news of the day. The media won't be able to help themselves.
"By "sex" the writer is referring to being female, right, not the way she advanced her career?"
I think this one of those "embrace the power of 'and' " things.
@MikeR, and which wreckage would that be?
“Harbours no genuine political convictions.”
Is that code for center-right?
Kamala just shows that any pretty young girl, if she keeps her head down, and her heels up, can be Veep. It's an important message!
Trump has a solid 38% of the vote as his base. And with a decent opponent, he wouldn't get one more vote.
The Dems are going to make sure he gets them.
""In my broadly shared dread that Republicans will nominate you-know-who yet again”
If Trump has a chance of winning, then it’s not THAT broadly shared. Shriver might want to step out of his bubble once in a while.
0_0 said...I also strongly dislike how 'an' is now being placed in front of every 'H'.
Most often seen with 'historic'. Who pronounces it "'istoric"?
“An istoric” rolls off the tongue more easily than “a historic,” which requires a pause between the words. So the answer to your question is most people and because the use of a/an is determined by pronunciation, not spelling, “an historic” is correct.
Can they discard both Harris and Biden? Do we get a Hillary/Stacey Abrams ticket? Dutchess of Harry?
Never, ever, ever minimize the stupidity of the youth vote.
The Dems have a serious leadership problem. They could swing center, is the best bet. Worked for Trump, no matter how the media perverted their reporting of it. Manchin/Simesa isn’t the stupidest thing they could do. But I actually think they’ll run lactating Buttigeig. They’re actually that stuck in the identity politics quicksand.
I think Kerry and Hillary will sniff the wind. Even Huma Abedin is positioning herself, as it were. Mark Warner? Tim Caine?
Amost all of these people support open borders, btw. Club for Growth has been courting several of them. They won’t be able to resist their own radicals and our libertarian asshats on unlimited legal and illegal immigration. Which continuously polls as a #1 issue for voters.
So Ann Coulter’s 10 billion dollar bill is still being dragged through the out-of-touch political intelligentsia on both sides
GOP Wildcards: Newt (yes, Newt), Rand Paul, Ted Cruz. Keep that beard and he may have a chance. Governors more likely. The Dems have no governor field to play.
I have an F-150 for sale. Just ten years old and 360K miles, but it runs fine. It is hopelessly filled with marble quarry chips and dust.
But they’re pink!
TT said...They could swing center, is the best bet.
If (Capital I. F. IF) a political party (ANY party) could see that 80% of dems in Congress, And 80% of republicans in Congress; are NOT radicals, but just people following polls...
And IF that party could see that 80% of voters do NOT want extreme stuff (left Or right)...
And IF that party scooped out those 80% in the center.... They would have COMPLETE CONTROL
What's that? we need 60 Senate votes to go to a vote? Funny Thing! We've got 80!
What's that? we need 67 Senate votes to overturn a veto? Funny Thing! We've got 80!
We could have Real Change, If the moderates on each side would just see they have more in common with each other, than with the radicals on either side
but, Will it Ever Happen? NOPE!
Cool article. He is in distress because the Biden administration is making such terrible errors that they might lose. It never occurs to him that if the Biden administration makes terrible errors, maybe no one should vote for them.
If Trump has a chance of winning, then it’s not THAT broadly shared. Shriver might want to step out of his [sic] bubble once in a while.
@tim, +1. However “Lionel” is the pseudonym for a 64 year old woman who has been living in England for a number of years. It’s not as though she knows very much about the issues facing American families beyond what she reads in the newspapers.
I don’t disagree with your assessment, Gilbar.
But I don’t think “the middle” would be able to govern free of the tentacles of the worst of both parties. And so their agenda — issues — would be no more in tune with what average Americans want the most.
So maybe we need another inoculation of crazy outsider to strengthen our resolve. I’m not kidding. I don’t see another way out, for either side.
@Big Mike "@MikeR, and which wreckage would that be?" The last three months of his presidency. He could have accomplished so much. Instead, he "chased the Kraken" down a rabbit hole. Trying to challenge issues with the election was fine, but he never noticed that he was going to lose, literally months after anyone with sense knew that it was futile. He played right into their hands, and set up the fiasco on Jan. 6, which is still paying dividends for our political enemies.
They finally found his button to push, and kept pushing it until he was out, and he just couldn't stop himself. Pathetic.
I assumed her parents must have named her "Lionel" to toughen her up.
Did she really rename herself "Lionel"?
Other than as a homage to Columbia's mid-20th century star literary critic or to a well loved childhood model train set, it seems like a very odd choice.
And she lives in England, so she should be bracing for Boris or Kier.
But at least we don't have to have that long-dreaded talk about Kevin any more.
"What amuses me endlessly is that Democrats are just as incompetent in dealing with their base as the GOP leadership is in dealing with MAGA nation. There's a reason Robert Cook doesn't come around anymore...."
What reason do you presume that to be?
MikeR: "The last three months of his presidency. He could have accomplished so much."
Like what?
The McConnel/Romney/Graham "republicans" made it quite clear they would provide the votes necessary to support the democraticals in removing Trump from office if he did anything they didnt like.
Thats what the 2nd impeachment was all about and dont think for a moment McConnell wasnt working diligently with Schumer and Pelosi behind the scenes on precisely that.
The entire federal govt knew after the election that they did not have to follow any directives from Trump.
Newsom does have the advantage of not being in Congress and therefore not having to defend any votes he made, but he has the disadvantage of being governor of California, and everything that's going wrong in the state can be blamed on him. Harris will be the likely nominee. Buttigieg had a shot, but he blew it by taking months off because he adopted children. Presidents don't take months off for paternity/maternity leave and neither should cabinet secretaries. The ruckus over his long vacation only emphasizes how unqualified for the position he was to begin with.
Lurker21 said...
I assumed her parents must have named her "Lionel" to toughen her up.
Did she really rename herself "Lionel"?
***********
Maybe she pulls a lot of trains?
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