The edge of burnout

This has been one HELL of a long campaign. A special Friday post.

There’s a bench close by this picture where I’d like to sit for a few days after this campaign. IIRC this is a pond in the Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge.

I guess I should have known it would be like this.

Once we had the 2020 election “fortified” enough for Joe Biden to win, there was no way on God’s green earth that Donald Trump was going to go away quietly. Just look at the protest he headed (and the FBI infiltrated) on J6.

Trump became a martyr that day, and everything the Democrats did made him more so: the unnecessary impeachment at the end of his term, the hunt for J6 political prisoners (and their treatment), then the Mar-A-Lago raid and the mugshot. Every time the Democrats thought they had Donald John Trump, felony trials on trumped-up (pun intended) charges or not, Trump somehow escaped their traps stronger than ever. They were the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.

Had Biden been of sound mind throughout, it was still possible that we would have a rematch for 2024, winner take all. But as we saw in the June debate, the Democrats felt they had to “fortify” things once more by dumping Biden and putting Kamala Harris on top of the ticket. Instead of the moderate Biden, the Democrats were taking off their mask and showing their true colors by nominating the most liberal Senator there was, a woman who picked a governor in Tim Walz who is suspiciously cozy with China as her running mate and passing on the popular governor of a state she needs to win because half her party is anti-Semitic. On the other hand, those who were scratching their heads at the selection of Senator J.D. Vance as Trump’s running mate soon found out what a bulldog he was, and a logical successor for 2028 and beyond.

As it stands, I would have loved to have Florida governor Ron DeSantis as the nominee, but there was always 50% or more in the Republican camp who saw Trump as their ride or die and that’s hard to match with several candidates in the field. It is a strong bench, though, and there would be nothing wrong with a Vance/DeSantis ticket in 2028 in my opinion.

But that’s getting ahead of myself. Fortunately, it looks like my home county will be held in good stead for the next four years as County Council will either be 5-0 or 4-1 Republican, with two new players already penciled in thanks to upsets in the primary. What I worry about is the state, which is economically lagging but may continue with the same old morons who have gotten us into this recessionary mess, that being the Democrat party.

At the state level, seven states, including North Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, Alaska, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Florida, posted real GDP increases of over 5.0 percent. On the other hand, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Mississippi, New York, and Wisconsin grew less than 1.0 percent in 2023 compared to 2022. Delaware posted a 1.2 percent annual decline in 2023. (Emphasis mine.)

Notice the high-growth states are “red” and the laggards tend to be “blue”?

If our nation got rid of Jimmy Carter for having a “misery index,” are we in the First State going to be bright enough to get rid of its tired leadership? Granted, I’m not really enamored with Mike Ramone at the top of the ticket but I voted for him anyway. To succeed, this state needs to get rid of the foolish idea that we are going to somehow corner the market in “green” industry and instead make our energy less expensive by dumping the whole renewable portfolio idea and dropping out of the RGGI racket.

This state needs to quit worrying about the tiny percentage of students who are being led to believe by their groomers in the school system that they can change their gender and work to put parents more in charge with better school choices: not just charter schools, but including assisting homeschoolers and those who wish to send kids to private schools.

This state must also evaluate not just where its tax dollars are going, but where they are coming from. Are we getting too dependent on Uncle Sam to pay our bills? What strings have been attached to this funding? If the GOP is put in charge of the federal government, there may be more opportunity for flexibility but at the same time we need to kick the bad habit of looking to Washington to solve our problems.

We also need strong support for our farmers, making sure they’re not terribly hurt by any tariffs the Trump administration may put in place - or any extreme environmentalism under a Harris regime. The old saw of a barrel for a bushel would be effective, except done right we can supply both to the world, plus a chicken in every pot to boot.

So we have (almost) made it through another four years, and the umpteenth “most important election in our lifetime” in a row. I look forward to doing some other stuff with this Substack for a little bit until the 2026 midterms begin Wednesday.

Until next time, remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.