When word traveled fast the night of November 8 about the huge re-election of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and word trickled out as  s l o w l y   a s   m o l a s s e s  about gains by Republican candidates in Senate and House races,  like vast numbers of registered Republicans, I immediately sensed that, lacking a GOP tsunami, the governor was the wave of the Republican future.  I began emailing people that the former president should invite the re-elected governor to Mar-a-Lago and offer him his political sword.

But that was a reflexive response, not a reflective one -- with nary a thought not only as to how the country benefited under Trump’s leadership, but, similarly, without a thought to the experience he acquired as president from January 20, 2017 to January 20, 2021.   To put it briefly, but bluntly: among our 330 million-plus citizens, there is exactly 1 who is qualified by direct experience to serve the country as president from January 20, 2025 to January 20, 2029.  He is the man the Democrats, media, non-Republican Republicans and enemies, in general, of the American way of life love to hate:  Donald J. Trump, the once and, G-d-willing, future president of the United States.

The rest of this essay is addressed to genuine Republicans who are concerned that 45 cannot be elected 47.   First, dispense with reading the output of the media-cum-press agents for the anti-freedom cabal.  Their idea of news consists of lies, smears and deprecations aimed at Mr. Trump and "his kind," as Obama hatchet-person David Plouffe referred to them in a June 2016 tweet.  This tweet regarded Mr. Trump and his supporters not as adversaries to be defeated at the polls, but as enemies to be wiped off the face of the planet.   (Is it mere coincidence that Garland/Wray send SWAT teams in predawn raids to arrest peaceful American citizens who dare oppose Bidenism -- the accumulation of autocratic power for the purpose of turning elections into irrelevancies, by means of executive action, rather than legislative enactment?)

GOP patriots should ask themselves: is it more likely or less likely that Mitch McConnell (who increasingly resembles the dictatorial D. B. Norton of Frank Capra populist film, "Meet John Doe") shares the loathing for Mr. Trump, and his MAGA "deplorables" of a Charles Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries -- or, certainly, Hillary Rodham Clinton.  To put forth the question is to lead to the inexorable answer:  of course McConnell intends to crush both Donald J. Trump and the MAGA movement.

The aggrandizing class that aims to live, not off the fat of the land, but by the sweat of the brow of the John Does of America, is not the class who will send to Congress legislators holding "communion of interests and sympathy of sentiments" with the American people.  The quoted words represent Madison's advice in Federalist No.57, to the officials who would be  elected pursuant to the terms of the Constitution whose drafting was completed on September 17, 1787.   Madison went on to point out that every government turns tyrannical without officials in "communion of interests and sympathy of sentiments" with the people.

In evaluating the candidacy of 45 (may G-d grant that he be 47, as well), attention must be paid the wisdom of Lincoln, not the false witness of ambitious aggrandizers.   Lincoln instructed that all of the people can be fooled some of the time, and some of the people can be fooled all of the time, but all of the people cannot be fooled all of the time.    The mendacious media can, indeed, by wily and personal lies and smears, fool some of the people all of the time.

The American spirit of liberty, extolled by Madison, is, however, committed to due process, fundamental fairness, full and open debate.   The American spirit of liberty abhors chicanery, rejects Queen of Hearts justice with guilt a function of mere accusation.  The American spirit of liberty also recognizes that a good man is often judged by the enemies he has made.

That test makes a second re-election bid by Donald J. Trump a very good thing, indeed, if the country is to get back on the track of making America great again.  Why should genuine Republicans not fear another presidential bid by Mr. Trump?  Simply stated, because the American people will realize, in the weeks and months ahead, that the people who would destroy Donald J. Trump and "his kind" are self-serving scoundrels.

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