Pearl River     In 1984, ACORN organized what we called “Reagan Ranches” all over the country, recalling the famous Hoovervilles, to protest Reagan economic policies impacting our membership.  In a similar “ranch”, organized along the trickle of a river in Dallas during the Republican national convention, we slept and marched under a banner that proclaimed, “Reagan – Out the Door in ‘84”.  Like some of our brothers and sisters in the Republican party who, in the midst of their midterm debacle, are doubling down in support of former president, Donald Trump, and his quixotic quest for re-election in the next general election, I want to preemptively declare my support for their efforts with the updated slogan, “Trump – Out the Door in ’24!”

I’m not alone, I’m sure.  Democratic strategists are already drooling over the opportunity to make four straight elections – 2018, 2020, 2022, and soon 2024 – a referendum and reaction to the Trump political circus.  Senator Bernie Sanders was quoted to the effect, that Trump running again as the Republican nominee would be terrible for the country, but great for the Democratic Party, spoken as a true democratic socialist pot stirrer.  Even as the votes and control of the House of Representatives is still hanging in the balance, some wild-eyed reps are throwing down the gauntlet in what could be the race for their Speaker and leadership positions on a litmus-test of how strong their support for Trump might be.  The Freedom Caucus, a preposterously named group of heavy breathing Congressional representatives, even with so many crazies being rejected, is already making demands for even more extreme, harder right positions in their body, ignoring the midterm results.  The Democrats may have torn their hair over Manchin and Sinema, but if the House goes with the elephant stroll, this gang of twenty or so, will give them fits.  Between this crew and Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott, the Democrats have them to thank for threatening in their fever dream of a red wave that they would cutback benefits and eligibility for Social Security and Medicare.  It won’t be boring, whoever is in the driver seat.

Trump for his part seems anxious to comply with the hopes of Democrats and upend the 2024 Republican primaries with his early announcement for re-election, still, as always, making the race all about him.  I finished the New York Times’ Trump-whisper, Maggie Haberman’s new book on his life and career, Confidence Man:  The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America on airplanes recently, and, if there was ever any doubt, he just can’t help himself.  I had promised myself that I would never read another book about the Trump years, but since Haberman is the queen of all Trump experts in the press, I couldn’t help myself either.  He’s not a quitter.  He hates losers.  He still owns 30% or more of the base, midterm elections and 2020, be damned, and that might be enough to win a lot of primaries and at the least tilt the race his way for the nomination.

All of which convinces me that the only way that Trump, and what he stands for, can be stopped is to beat him even more thoroughly in 2024, so I’m all in on the “Trump – Out the Door in ‘24” campaign.  It’s just the luck of the Democrats that that’s good for them, too.  The bigger problem will then still be how to bring his base back to beliefs that democracy works and that we are all stronger together than apart.