The Policies, Or The Person?

The Presidential caucuses and primaries ahead of the 2024 Presidential election will kick off in about fourteen months. By then, I expect we will have witnessed a bedlam of jockeying, electioneering, speechifying, pontificating, sniping, dirty-laundering, and other varieties of political gamesmanship from a passel of aspirants - and that's apart from debates, policy presentations, and other "informational" parts of the political process.

We are still some time before that scrum begins in earnest, but I am as certain as can be that serious candidates have already started their ground work and laid out the beginnings of roadmaps.

The giant orange elephant in the room is, of course, our 45th President. He has not only declared his intent to run again, he is warning off potential competitors in his usual bullying fashion. Despite that, I do expect him to be challenged by several politicians of prominence.

Back in 2015-2016, Trump emerged from a crowded field by offering a different-enough flavor of Republicanism than everyone else. He fixated on illegal immigration and built from that an "America First" form of populism that departed from the more traditional GOP platform (either in aspiration or in practice) and that resonated with a large-enough chunk of the electorate that was weary of the Finger-Pointer-In-Chief's derision for most things American. He rode that to the nomination, and then shocked the planet by defeating the Democrats' anointed heir-presumptive in the general election.

The landscape today isn't what it was, and the Democrats' cynical indifference and scheming have done quite well in uniting the GOP on the southern border matter. In other words, Trump won't be able to play that angle as his differentiator.

I think it safe to say that this will be true across most policy areas. The other high-Q possibles, including DeSantis, Haley, Scott, Pence, Pompeo, and Noem, to name the first half-dozen on the gambling markets' list, are likely to present a substantively similar platform to Trump's, and if elected follow a very similar playbook.

Differentiation among the candidates will likely come down to personality traits and "electability" considerations.

I will ask then, as I did recently, these questions:

• Does Trump stand a better chance of winning than, say, DeSantis?

• Does he bring anything positive to the table that any of half a dozen or more other GOP possibilities do not?

• Will the country as a whole be better off with him in the WH, or with a different Republican?

Yes, they are rhetorical.

• No, Trump does not.

• No, his policies won't be unique or substantively different.

• No, there is no chance at reducing our binary, Manichean animosity with four more years of Trump. Any GOP president will be attacked endlessly by the usual suspects, but they aren't nearly as apt to draw middle-voter dislike or ire as Trump has and will. Vitally, Trump’s destructive and chaotic style will not serve the nation, whereas another GOPer would at least offer us a chance at real leadership for more than just Trump’s die-hards.

Running Trump up for re-election will reward his grossly unseemly post-election behavior, ignore or dismiss both his failure to act when the January 6th riot started and his persistent "stolen election" folderol, and usher in a chaotic Presidency rooted in his near monomaniacal desire to “be right” about having been robbed. And, as we’ve seen, he’s not above discarding his oath of office and obligatory respect for the Constitution.

Please don’t excuse this as “hyperbole” or a matter of misinterpretation. He’s overtly dismissing the Constitution itself. This alone would turn countless votes against him in an election.

The other candidates will give you the same policies, without all the baggage or chaos or selfish petulance. Supporting Trump over any of them validates the accusations of "cult of personality" lobbed by the Left, and ensures four more years not only of national rancor, but of GOP-internal rancor as well.

While I understand that this “policies over person” argument is often used to excuse Trump’s antics, because he did some good things as President, I reiterate that you’ll get your good things from the other candidates without the bad things that Trump will invariably pursue.

What's more important to you, getting the country on a good track, or in-your-facing the other team for its grotesque behavior?

Now, if you have legitimate, policy-based or "win"-based reasons to support Trump over the others, I'd love to read them. Please share in the comments section.

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An afterthought. This “policies vs person” discriminator isn’t limited to Trump. We’ve seen, time and again, what cults of personality lead to, and I recently urged the same stance toward Elon Musk:

Applaud the action rather than idolize the person.

When someone does something good or gets something right, acknowledge it above him. Trump did some good things while President, and I gave him props for doing them, both in-the-moment and today. Same for Elon. In idolizing a person over his policies, we corner ourselves into a reluctance to later criticize bad actions or policies.

Yet it is actions and policies, not than the persons themselves, that affect our lives and the nation overall. This isn’t about rooting for your home team, whose success or failure will have no real effect on your life, present or future. Politics is about what people do, not who they are, no matter that “who they are” seems to be what people fixate on, both positively and negatively. Some will retort with “character matters,” and to the extent that it impacts decisions and policy, it does, but a scurrilous libertine who enacts a platform of strong policies is better for you than a “pillar of the community” whose policies run contrary to your desires.

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Peter.