With former vice president Mike Pence dropping out of the race for the GOP Presidential nomination, along with other also-ran Republican nominees who never had a chance, there’s a growing restlessness among Republican voters that the 2024 presidential primary is over. From Congresswoman Lauren Boebert to former Presidential nominee and Secretary of Housing Ben Carson, the pundits, commentators, voters are saying: “Everyone else needs to drop out. Trump is the runaway favorite.”
We have a free country with open contested elections, and every voter should have choices. The Democratic Party is witnessing more candidates jumping into their primary because progressives and even some moderates fear that Biden cannot get re-elected. Why should Trump expect a coronation? Second, as I have written before, polling is not voting results. I don’t believe the polls that show Trump ahead by double-digits. National polling means nothing. State polls matter a little more. And Ann Coulter has wisely pointed out that name ID often governs who wins these different polls five months to a year before the Iowa caucuses. When it’s time to cast ballots, however, the results often go a different way.
If Republicans can be honest with themselves, this election is far from over, and it’s a fight between Trump and DeSantis. If I were on the Florida Governor’s campaign, I would tell him to rethink the third debate in Miami with the other candidates. He should throw down the gauntlet and declare: “I will only debate Trump. Let’s make this happen.”
Another main criticism and talking point from Current Trumpers who blast voters like me is the question of loyalty. “You are not loyal! President Trump fought for us. They stole the election from him. You should be supporting him, giving him another chance! How can you turn on him and support someone else? DeSantis should have waited his turn. He betrayed Trump, after all the work he did to support his bid for Governors!”
Here’s what I have to say about loyalty.
Regarding DeSantis’ decision to run in 2024, no politician owes another politician loyalty pledges not to run for higher office. Ronald Reagan ran against incumbent President Ford in 1976, which was his right to do, and conservatives didn’t complain. No one elected to public office is guaranteed their charge just because.
As for myself, I am a citizen of the United States, but most importantly, I am a Christian—a Christian who would have never voted for Mike Pence, by the way, no matter how many Scriptures he quoted or how many times he told me about his wife teaching Sunday School, blah. My first loyalty is to my Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.
When it comes to politics, no politician deserves a voter’s loyalty. Elected officials have to earn our support, and even then, if we find a better candidate for the next contest, we have every right to switch our support to someone else. Just as an employer is not duty bound to hold onto any or every employee, so too we as voters have every right and prerogative to vote for whomever we want. I do not owe any one candidate my vote. The United States is a constitutional republic, not a dictatorship.
Another thing about loyalty: President Trump made promises, and he didn’t keep them.
We all chanted “Lock Her Up! Lock Her Up!” about Hilary Clinton. She bleach-bit tens of thousands of official emails, a major federal crime, and during the second general election debate in 2016, he promised to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute her. A month after his election victory, he laughed off that promise. Right after his inauguration, he was actually celebrating her.
Now let’s focus on the biggest promise he didn’t keep, one that he is already backing away from.
He promised to “Build the Wall.” I remember during one 2016 primary debate, he talked about how he was going to “Build a big, beautiful wall, with a big beautiful door in the middle.” I could overlook the hyperbole in the second part of that sentence, but the point was clear: Build a permanent barrier to stop the invasion which is overwhelming our country.
Not only was he going to build the wall, he promised that Mexico was going to pay for it. Here’s his statement on the matter at his 2015 campaign announcement speech (Check at the 48 minute mark):
I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.
Former President of Mexico Vicente Fox in vile fashion condemned that promise: “We’re not paying for that f—king wall!” We all took him seriously. But Trump didn’t build the wall. He repaired some sections of the wall, and he put up some barriers with barbed-wire fencing. But he didn’t build the wall. Trump would only crow in January, 2021 (eight days before leaving office, six days after the uproar at the US Capitol) that he got 45 new miles of wall built. That’s it?!
In 2023, Trump is launching the latest set of lame excuses: “I couldn’t legally build the wall and make Mexico pay for it.” Yes, he said that TWICE: see it here and here. In the second case, he talked about building “a piece of the wall.” Talk about dumbing down expectations! In sharp contrast to this weak waffling, DeSantis called out Trump on “rationalizing his failure.” DeSantis then pointed out what a number of pundits had shared in 2016: tax the remittances! Yes, Trump could have built the wall, make Mexico pay for it, and not need an act of congress to get it done.
Loyalty means nothing if someone doesn’t keep his promises. Trump doesn’t deserve ours. He didn’t keep his promises, folks, and twice in the last month, Trump has made excuses. Where’s the loyalty to us, Mr. Trump?