Guest Post by Pat Buchanan
A medical crisis, an economic crisis, and a cultural and social crisis, have hit us all at once, raising some fundamental questions.
On July 22, 1988, after the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta, the party nominee, Gov. Michael Dukakis, enjoyed a 17-point lead over Vice President George W. Bush.
Five weeks later, on Labor Day, Dukakis was down eight points, the same margin by which he would lose the election. He had lost 25 points in one month.
What had happened? During August, Republican attack groups elevated and relentlessly pounded what might be called Dukakis’ Bay State radical liberalism.
He had proudly called himself a card-carrying member of the ACLU. He had vetoed a bill requiring the Pledge of Allegiance in Massachusetts’ schools. He was against imposing the death penalty. He had issued weekend passes to convicted killers such as the infamous Willie Horton, who had used his get-out-of-jail-free card to go to Maryland and rape and murder.
Vice President Bush ended up winning 40 states.
Is this possible today? Because a turnaround of that magnitude appears to be needed by Donald J. Trump.
Over the weekend, the bad news on the virus front turned awful, for the country and Trump.
The U.S. dead from the coronavirus hit 135,000. COVID-19 deaths, whose weekly average had been falling since April, began to rise again.
New cases of the infection began appearing in previously unseen numbers across the Sun Belt. Florida set a U.S. record with more than 15,000 new cases in one day.
Have something to say about this column?
Visit Gab – The social network that champions free speech – Comment without Censorship!
Or visit Pat’s FaceBook page and post your comments….
This surge in infections is occurring as the nation debates whether to send its young back to schools. Children, teachers and students could arrive in classrooms in the millions in late summer only to be sent home in a new shutdown as a second wave of COVID-19 hits this fall.
Were that not enough to concentrate the mind, an economy that was as strong as any in modern history last winter now looks to be in a depression. The good news of the May-June revival could be canceled out by shutdowns mandated by the new infections.
Beyond this, America’s racial divide has reopened. The attacks on cops and their demonization in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, has led to demoralization, resignations and retirements, and, from there, to an explosion of shootings and killings in major cities.
And we have witnessed the outbreak of a cultural revolution, which holds that as America has, from birth, been a slave-owning society whose policies toward the native-born amounted to cultural and ethnic genocide, the statues of those generations of men who produced such a history should all be pulled down and smashed.
A medical crisis, an economic crisis, and a cultural and social crisis, have hit us all at once, raising some fundamental questions.
Does America retain the unity, strength and sense of purpose to lead the world? Is American democracy still the model for mankind?
Watch the Latest Videos
on Our Buchanan-Trump YouTube Playlist!
Trump is not responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. And the shutdowns that induced today’s depression were as much the decisions of governors and mayors as of the president. Yet, he is the one whose fate is tied to the state of the economy in November 2020.
And, politically, Trump is the one paying the price.
Several national polls have Joe Biden up by 10 points or more, and polls in swing states, as well as must-carry states for Trump such as Florida, have Biden leading. In the money primary, Biden and the Democrats turned May and June into winning months. Their Senate candidates are awash in cash in states where they had been seen as sacrificial lambs.
The pundits, following the polls, are giddily predicting a Biden win, a recapture of the Senate and the retention of Democratic control of the House.
What can Trump do? What should Trump do?
In 1948, Harry Truman looked like a certain loser to Gov. Tom Dewey. So he sent a raft of liberal legislation to the Hill and challenged the Republican Congress to enact it. When Congress airily dismissed his proposals, Truman barnstormed the country, calling on America to help him rid the nation of this “no-good, do-nothing 80th Congress.”
Which the country proceeded to do, as it elected Truman and threw out the first Republican Congress to sit since before the Depression.
What the Trump folks must do now is to zero in on Biden’s vulnerabilities, personal and political.
First among these is Biden’s transparently diminished verbal and mental capacity. He is no longer the man who bested Paul Ryan in the vice presidential debate of 2012. Even during controlled appearances where he reads from a teleprompter, Biden emits a sense of unease that he will lose control of his ghostwritten script.
Second, the Biden campaign has embraced an agenda that is, in part, Bernie Sanders-AOC-Black Lives Matter.
The Trump folks need to force Biden to come out of his basement and either embrace or renounce the radical elements of his agenda. They need to do for Biden what Lee Atwater & Co. did for Dukakis.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
I just puked a little in my mouth.
Presidential politics has been nothing but Cohn-Stone trickery, sabotage, and gayness since 1972 and Pat knows this.
Everything else is just noise.
I’m not worried. I see Trump winning easily. If Biden wins by some miracle it will just bring about the end of the country faster.
Can you name one thing that was broken in 2016 that Trump has fixed or even made better? He’s done absolutely nothing for the people who elected him. Even way back when Biden had all of his faculties, he was still only a midwit. The fact that these are our two choices is compelling proof that we are a conquered people being subjected to maximum humiliation as part of our defeat.
Income taxes were lowered for many and Form 1040 has been simplified. Since you asked.
Yah that made it easier for the FSA to get more stuff from the productive. Notice the income tax was not removed? Trump is just another mouth piece for the “Lets enslave the white people” crowd.
Trump should not use very much of his ammo against Creepy Old Joe until he has been nominated. Go after the policies of the left and tie them to the mobs running rampant throughout the cities, but do not mention Biden. There is a very good chance he will not be the dem nominee.
When I saw “Truman” in the title I immediately thought of “The Truman Show” – a movie about a man whose entire world was fabricated by Hollywood in a fake studio word, all for the benefit of the viewers. Sounds far more like what Trump is up against than going back to the Truman versus Dewey election.
Buchanan is assuming polling is correct. Who in their right mind sees CNN Polling on their caller ID and picks up? Who would ever tell a complete stranger on the phone what their political opinions were? CNN and their media friends like to dox people who have the wrong ideas, and get them fired. Why would anyone ever answer their polls and give them ammunition?
Makes no difference. Trump is a conservative eunuch place holder wose job is to neuter the conservatives who think we must stop the communists. Controlled opposition. What must be done is a hard and ugly cleansing in the spirit of the Spanish civil war but much more thorough.
Well! Pat sure did lay it out! A bazillion new cases! He is as disinforming as the MSM. Why are there new cases? Because more people are being tested! Yikes! Likely there are more positives because, Gosh! Those people have had a cold. This is all BS on the highest order. F Pat and F the government!