Donald Trump surprised plenty of folks by starting off quite magnanimous in his Iowa victory speech, then reviewing his core views on key topics, on which for the most part the vast majority of Americans would agree.
But as the speech wore on he dribbled into stolen-election nonsense and the rhetoric of retribution that has come to define Trump 2.0 (or is that 3.0?).
Which Trump will America get if he makes it first to the nomination and then back to the White House?
Both of them, probably — but for the country’s sake let’s hope the angel on his shoulder mostly speaks in his ear.
That is, the one who said, “I really think this is time now for everybody, our country, to come together. We want to come together, whether it’s Republican or Democrat, or liberal or conservative. It would be so nice if we could come together and straighten out the world, and straighten out the problems, and straighten out all of the death and destruction that we’re witnessing.”
He even had genial words (sans bullying nicknames) for the three candidates he’d just tromped, followed by fast hits on the key issues of the border, crime and foreign affairs.
His central thrust on those issues was basic common sense that most of America can see, except those blinded by the fog in Washington.
For example, the Hamas atrocities behind Israel’s war in Gaza “all comes from Iran,” which his policies had left “broke,” with “no money to give to Hamas and Hezbollah.”
An exaggeration, sure, but that doesn’t change the fact that Team Biden has been empowering Iran, the central threat to Middle East peace, where Team Trump treated Tehran as the enemy it is.
He also rightly noted the unnecessary Biden failure on the border, big-city crime, US energy policy and how inflation and taxes are ravaging the family pocketbook.
So far, a fundamentally winning message — but then he dove back into 2020 denialism, and we tuned out.
OK: Most Republican voters generally figure Democrats cheat so much that Trump probably was robbed (even if they realize his specific claims about that election are bunk) — and the full-bore “lawfare” against him now confirms that feeling.
But getting back to the White House (and to a successful second term) requires more than just most Republican voters plus MAGA-leaners outside the GOP — and determined gripes about 2020 will push those folks in the suburbs of swing states away, not bring them onboard.
An exhausted America wants hope, to look forward, not the rhetoric of retribution for wars of the past.
If the Trump that emerges from the primaries is venomous, mean and spiteful, the country’s looking at either a Biden-Harris win or a Trump victory so narrow it would lack the gains in Congress needed to avoid total gridlock.
Biden is eager to run against “Trump the demagogue”; playing “Dark Donald” could give him the ammunition to make that work.
