When I left the U.S. Senate, I concluded that the Democrats were "evil" but smart, while the Republicans were "Neanderthals" and dumb. I have never changed that opinion; and I have been an Independent ever since, and proudly one. I held my nose and voted a straight GOP ticket in 2016 and 2020 for one reason only: Donald Trump. For all intents and purposes, he is America's first Independent President, beholden to neither party and contemptuous of both—which is why he is hated and feared by both the Left and the Right.
I began as a Democrat in a devoutly-Republican family; and I was in the Los Angeles Coliseum when John F. Kennedy delivered his acceptance speech at the 1960 Democratic convention, even though I was not old enough to vote. After law school at Berkeley and Georgetown, and serving two years as an Army Officer at the Pentagon, I went to work on Capitol Hill instead of going back to work for a prestigious law firm in San Francisco. I took seriously JFK's inspiring words—written by Ted Sorensen—about serving one's country.
Later, I learned that JFK was a total fraud, and the most despicable President in American history.[2] Among other things he never should have been our President. He and his family, and the Democrats and Chicago crime boss Sam Giancana rigged the 1960 elections in Chicago and West Virginia; and Richard Nixon was too honorable to put the American people through a contested election.
JFK's girlfriend, Judith Campbell Exner, was also Giancana's girlfriend; and she acted as their "go-between." JFK was not well when he was shot in Dallas; and there are reasons to believe that he might not have lived much longer. Also, he might not have been killed that day except he was wearing a full body brace that kept him rigid, after having hurt his back frolicking with bimbos in a Los Angeles swimming pool.[3]
The Republicans were too stupid to prevent the rigging of JFK's election; and the Democrats had perfected their skulduggery to a fine art by the time of the 2020 elections. Now, to insure that Joe Biden's one term presidency—at most—is not wasted, they have marshaled their skills and put the nation through an unconstitutional impeachment process.
Because they are thoroughly evil, they even have a backup plan[4], with all of this transpiring after the un-American racist and anti-Semite Barack Obama and his co-conspirators spent more than four years trying to destroy the candidacy and presidency of Donald Trump, which is treason. And this is occurring in the context of the Chinese Communist rulers' sophisticated efforts to achieve global domination, after having unleashed the deadly Coronavirus pandemic and destroyed so many lives physically, psychologically and economically in the United States and globally.[5]
Against this backdrop, we have total GOP losers like Nikki Haley and Mitt Romney who fancy themselves as God's gifts to the Universe, and as the next President of the United States. Pat Buchanan—an adviser to Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, and a former GOP presidential aspirant himself—has written about the pathetic GOP in an article entitled the "Dark Winter of a Grand Old Party," as follows:
It has been a dreadful three months for the Grand Old Party.
On Nov. 3, President Donald Trump seemed to have lost the White House by narrowly losing three crucial blue states he had won in 2016 — Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania — and Georgia and Arizona as well.
Trump immediately mounted an acrimonious two-month campaign to prove the election had been "rigged" and "stolen," enlisting virtually the entire party behind his claim.
On Jan. 5, after an intra-party battle between Trump and the Georgia Republican leadership, the GOP lost both of Georgia's Senate seats and control of the U.S. Senate.
On Jan. 6, a mob, after storming the Capitol to block a formal vote to confirm the election of Joe Biden as president, rampaged through the building for hours.
On Jan. 13, Trump was impeached by Speaker Nancy Pelosi's House for "incitation of insurrection."
The trial began Tuesday, featuring endless reruns of footage from the Jan. 6 occupation, showing thugs invading and trashing the Capitol and searching out Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.
Trump's defense: He directed the crowd on the mall to march to the Capitol "peacefully" not violently, and the White House was unaware there might be a mob assault.
In the month since the attack on the Capitol, says The New York Times, 140,000 Republicans in 25 states have renounced their party by changing their registration. And Joe Biden's approval rating has been in the 50s, a level Trump did not reach in four years.
There may have been a worse 90 days in Republican Party history, but it is difficult to recall exactly when.
There was the Goldwater defeat of 1964, which left the party with less than 40% of the presidential vote and less than a third of the seats in the House and Senate.
There was the Watergate year 1974, which saw Richard Nixon resign in August and the party lose 49 House seats that fall and then lose the presidency to Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Yet, the years following these political disasters were not all that bad.
Goldwater's defeat was followed by the Nixon-led comeback in 1966, with the party picking up 47 seats and then recapturing the White House in 1968. And while Watergate was followed by the loss of Nixon's successor Gerald Ford in 1976, Jimmy Carter's presidency opened the door to the winningest Republican of them all, Ronald Reagan.
In short, it is not always true as Sen. John McCain mordantly observed, that the darkest hour is often just before it turns totally black.
What are the prerequisites for a Republican restoration?
As Nixon's victory in 1968 and Reagan's in 1980 showed, a party comeback requires, first, the perceived failure of the opposition on issues of major concern to the great majority.
In 1968, LBJ's Great Society program had ushered in five summers of race riots, soaring crime rates, a social and cultural revolution on the campuses, and a war in Southeast Asia that was consuming 200 to 300 American lives a week.
Under Carter in 1980, there were 21% interest rates, 13% inflation, 7% unemployment and 52 U.S. hostages being held in Iran.
A second and indispensable element of a party comeback is party unity, which Nixon and Reagan produced, as Eisenhower had before them.
Whether the GOP will be united in 2022 or 2024 depends, very much today, on one man.
Still, as of today, though Biden appears personally popular, he seems to be moving leftward in a way that will play into the GOP's hands on several issues.
Shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline, for example, is a policy decision that will kill thousands of jobs to prevent an "existential crisis" millions of workers do not see.
Second, Biden has moved the racial goalposts from equality of opportunity to "equity" for all, which can only be attained by socialist action to even out incomes and wealth through quotas, affirmative action and set-asides. Yet, voters in ultra-liberal California last fall crushed Prop 16, which would have empowered public agencies, universities and colleges to consider race, gender and ethnicity when making decisions on contracting, hiring and student admissions.
Moreover, the liberal immigration policy Biden promised last fall has already caused a stampede to our Southern border. Some 78,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended by the Border Patrol crossing in January alone. They are now being caught at the rate of 3,000 a day.
Securing the border is a populist and national security issue.
Other Trump add-ons to the traditional GOP agenda remain popular with large majorities of Americans.
Consider the "America first" issues of economic nationalism, the return of manufacturing to the United States, and keeping U.S. troops out of foreign wars where no vital U.S. interests are imperiled.
The questions of the hour are these: Will the GOP be united against an incumbent party that is moving visibly leftward and dragging the country with it — and what will Donald Trump do?[6]
[1] Timothy D. Naegele was counsel to the United States Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and chief of staff to Presidential Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal recipient and former U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-Mass). He and his firm, Timothy D. Naegele & Associates, specialize in Banking and Financial Institutions Law, Internet Law, Litigation and other matters (see, e.g., Timothy D. Naegele Resume-20-6-30). He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as two law degrees from the School of Law (Boalt Hall), University of California, Berkeley, and from Georgetown University. He served as a Captain in the U.S. Army, assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency at the Pentagon, where he received the Joint Service Commendation Medal (see, e.g., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commendation_Medal#Joint_Service). Mr. Naegele is an Independent politically; and he is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law, and Who's Who in Finance and Business. He has written extensively over the years (see, e.g., www.naegele.com/whats_new.html#articles and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/articles/), and can be contacted directly at tdnaegele.associates@gmail.com
[2] Seehttps://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/john-f-kennedy-the-most-despicable-president-in-american-history/("John F. Kennedy: The Most Despicable President In American History") (see also the extensive comments beneath the article)
[3] See supra.
[4] See https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article249077830.html ("Democrats draft Plan B expecting Trump impeachment acquittal")
[5] See, e.g., https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/01/13/the-day-america-died/ ("The Day America Died?"); see also https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/is-barack-obama-a-racist/ ("Is Barack Obama A Racist?") and Timothy D. Naegele, The Coronavirus and Similar Global Issues: How to Address Them, 137 BANKING L. J. 285 (June 2020) (Naegele June 2020) (Timothy D. Naegele) [NOTE: To download The Banking Law Journal article, please click on the link to the left of this note] and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/the-silent-voices-of-stalin%E2%80%99s-soviet-holocaust-and-mao%E2%80%99s-chinese-holocaust/ (“The Silent Voices Of Stalin’s Soviet Holocaust And Mao’s Chinese Holocaust”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/06/20/can-we-coexist-with-asias-communists/ (“Can We Coexist with Asia’s Communists?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/05/12/coexistence-with-china-or-war/ (“Coexistence With China Or War?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/16/the-coronavirus-must-become-chinas-chernobyl-hastening-the-collapse-of-its-evil-regime/(“The Coronavirus Must Become China’s Chernobyl, Hastening The Collapse Of Its Evil Regime”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/07/why-should-the-world-trust-china-ever-again/ (“Why Should The World Trust China Ever Again?”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/03/25/china-infects-the-world-then-lies-and-blames-america/ (“China Infects The World, Then Lies And Blames America”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/02/20/expert-warns-quarantine-process-failed-as-china-stands-ready-to-crash-world-economy/ (“Expert Warns Quarantine Process Failed, As China Stands Ready To Crash World Economy”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2019/08/13/china-is-americas-enemy-and-the-enemy-of-free-people-everywhere/ (“China Is America’s Enemy, And The Enemy Of Free People Everywhere”) and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/china-is-americas-enemy-make-no-mistake-about-that/ (“China Is America’s Enemy: Make No Mistake About That”) and https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8957019/China-used-secret-microwave-pulse-weapon-Indian-soldiers.html ("China 'used secret microwave pulse weapon to cook Indian soldiers alive' and force them into retreat in Himalayan border battle")
[6] Seehttps://buchanan.org/blog/dark-winter-of-a-grand-old-party-142798 ("Dark Winter of a Grand Old Party"); see alsohttps://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2021/02/11/joe-biden-is-trumpisms-best-asset/ ("Joe Biden is Trumpism’s Best Asset") and https://naegeleblog.wordpress.com/2020/12/19/the-high-tech-lynching-of-donald-trump/ ("The High-Tech Lynching Of Donald Trump")
The only one to blame for the destruction of the GOP and for losing the majority is Trump himself.
I find it interesting that so many in the GOP praised Mitt Romney and Nikki Haley... until they said anything negative about Trump. Then all the good was forgotten and they became RINO's. What's with the new requirement to offer unyielding, blind loyalty to Trump to still be considered a Republican?
I think the GOP is dead. It is now the Trump Party. That leaves many of us on the right with no wear to go.
Thank you, Craig, for your comments.
I have been ashamed for years that I voted for the carpetbagger from Massachusetts, Utah's Senator Mitt Romney, and the equally-despicable Paul Ryan. Also, Nikki never should have been trusted for a nanosecond.
When I left the U.S. Senate, I became an Independent, and have been one ever since. I despise both parties. :-)
Why do you say that? Nikki Haley has always been unwavering in her support of Trump. And she left his administrations on good terms, a rare feat! Yes, she criticized Trump's handling of the riot, but certainly we can all agree that Trump could have been a bit more careful with his words, if only so people couldn't have blamed him for a crazed mob's violent reaction.
And he should have called on the protestors to stop sooner. But can we really condemn her for offering some honest constructive criticism? What lese is there not to like about Haley? She's someone who could be the future of the GOP and who could easily win back some of those who were turned off by Trump's rhetoric, while keeping those who shared his policy views.
See also naegeleblog.wordpress.com/.../the-gop-is-dead-and-few-of-us-are-saddened-by-its-demise/ ("The GOP Is Dead, And Few Of Us Are Saddened By Its Demise")