Welp, we are back.
Arkansas Republican Governor Asa Hutchinson said this week on Fox News Sunday that many Republicans want to transcend Donald Trump’s control in 2024 and instead focus on the future.
I believe that the Republican Party’s future will be different from the one under former President Trump. I believe we can move in a new direction. I think he has a lot on his shoulders after what happened on January 6. It was wrong for our country and it is wrong for him to continue pushing that [rigged, stolen election] theory.
Instead of going into poll results regarding “who believes what” about the 2020 election results I’ll just say this in the words of Stuart Chase, the late economist:
No proof is required for those who believe. No proof is required for those who do not believe.
The main point of the quote above is that it applies to both sides in the never-ending story about the 2020 election results, January 6, and its continuing aftermath.
Hutchinson believes that Trump was a good president, and 2024 is an opportunity for Republicans to be leaders in the future.
Many Republicans are seeking an exit ramp, and new opportunities to be leaders in the future. Although there were many things President Trump did that I and the base agreed with, he strayed off track on Jan. 6 and it was a costly mistake for democracy.
Many of his comments are true. We need to be clear about that. Republicans should do a lot more soul-searching about what is right. It is important to think about what the right thing is to say for our party, our democracy, and our future. Not just appeal to the instincts and desires of our base.
The question of Trump’s guilt — or lack thereof — in the January 6 events will continue to be debated until the end. Further reality: Nothing will come out of this never-ending struggle; no minds will change. While Democrats will continue to refer to the Capitol breach as an “attempted coup” and “insurrection,” Trump calls it “not just a protest…it represented the greatest movement in our country’s history to Make America Great Again.”
Joe Biden, on paper, should be the most difficult sitting president to defeat in the entire history of the presidency. If the Democrat Party is stupid enough to allow him run, then that would be. (Operative words are “on paper,” or “should be.”) The potential baggage that Donald Trump may bring to the 2024 election is the likely thorn in the side of the Republicans. Although loyalists may claim otherwise, facts are facts. What percentage of this “baggage” are potential Republican voters able to see as such?
At least, there is an undercurrent within the Republican Party that flows in the same direction as Asa Hutchinson’s thoughts. Is that undertow strong? Is it growing or weak? It is growing?
I have called out Donald Trump and other politicians when it was necessary. However, truth and objectivity are much more important than that; too much is at stake.
It would be a shame if this were true only for one side of the political spectrum.
