My guess is that this is the position the Democrat Party in the United States and all who supported them over the most recent election cycle will find themselves in.
Sure there will be those who will steadfastly refuse to accept that their message to the voting public was way out of touch with the majority but hopefully, like all political parties who have become the alternative to Governments after a long period in power, those who are realistic about their position in opposition will acknowledge the road ahead will initially be filled with a lot of soul searching into what went wrong and what is required in order to become competitive once more.
Experienced politicians will quickly realise that changes in advocacy on behalf of the average voter they need to win back is a number one priority.
If senior members of the defeated party are not prepared to collectively share the blame for what happened then they might as well call it quits and find some other way to fill their day.
For parties that have just been humiliated at the polls, rebuilding takes time and will need a certain amount of good luck if they are to become competitive within the first term of the new Government.
Yet, although it is unlikely that things can change for the better that quickly, it can and does happen.
But for a party that has been rejected so emphatically within one election cycle, it will take more than a decent dollop of good luck before they can present themselves again as a credible Government in waiting. For the newly installed Government to fail, much will depend on both an outright betrayal of those who voted for them less than four years ago and, perhaps more importantly, an Opposition leader who demonstrates some “messiah”; like qualities that are rare in the political climate where these battles for the hearts and minds are fought.
However, if you wanted to write a script for those types of critical factors all coming together in one campaign period, the latest US re-election of Donald Trump to the Presidency provides all the contributing inputs you need for a best seller.
You can’t make it up.
Even author Stephen King, a staunch critic of Donald Trump, would have to admit he couldn’t have scripted it better.
Trump has simply thrown the handbook for election success out the door and has imposed himself on the US and World political stages like no other since FDR.
He is a phenomenon, the like of which we may never see again.
It is hoped that he will use this latest opportunity to return the world to at least what it was when he left office last time.
My gut feeling is that one of Trump’s greatest strengths is that he learns from his mistakes and is quite prepared to acknowledge he has made some.
Fortunately, his track record suggests his latest stint in office will be without the naïvety he brought to the first.
His new cabinet will be filled with people he has handpicked because of their ability to do the job and in so doing gain his trust..
That should save him and us from the previous chaotic periods when he was dealing with people who had different agendas to his own. Sometimes he found out too late that there were traitors within.
That shouldn’t happen this time.
We’ll see.
Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.
6 comments:
Bibby hopes Donald Trump will "return the world to at least what it was when he left office last time". That would be when he had just spent four years promoting profit-taking schemes and uses of public funds for personal benefit. When he issued corrupt pardons to those who engaged in corruption. When members of his Cabinet faced so many corruption allegations that it was difficult to keep track of them all. His Government has been described by one reputable commentator as "the first modern pro-corruption administration". And this is the world Bibby hopes Trump will return to? But there again, perhaps that's just how they carry on in Tolaga Bay.
How much longer do we have to tolerate these cowards who throw rocks at glass houses while not having the courage of their convictions to tell us who they are.
It would be interesting to see whether they have ever been to my home town because if they had, they would have no reason to sneer at the people who, although relatively poor financially, are amongst God’s most wealthy when it comes to having the things that money can’t buy.
He doesn’t even have the guts to tell us who the “reputable commentator” is he quotes so that we can fact check his claim. My guess is he doesn’t exist or if he or she does, nobody regards his or her comments as credible.
My preference is to deal with reality. That’s why l have dedicated what’s left of my life to helping people who need it achieve their own aspirational goals.
No better way to spend your twilight years - but of course, our nameless correspondent wouldn’t understand that. He should crawl back under his rock
and let us get on with it.
Yes indeed Clive....
I also think that his reinvention of himself, that being DJT that were talking about, not the sanctimonious commentor previous to yours now, was indeed due to lessons he'd learnt. However, his popularity never really waned but steadily increased. I don't think the Dems really did win the 2020 elections, there was a lot of after dark skull duggery involved and besides what did happen to all those 20 million voters? Surely they didn't all go to Trump this election?
Ad hominem arguments are a poor substitute for rational argument Mr Bibby. You are careful not to dispute my point that Trump was corrupt. and doesn't deserve a second term. Already his crazy cabinet choices are bearing that out. Deja vue all over again.
I don’t have to dispute anything. Why would l when over 70 million Americans agree with my assessment of Donald Trump’s fitness for another stint as President.
In fact, l detect an air of excitement related to Trump’s victory that is unprecedented.
I have no doubt that people like you who have misread the mood of the people will be left to wallow in their own self pity while the rest of us are able to tick off the achievements the new administration as they restore hope and peace to world in chaos.
You can’t make this up. Get used to it.
Well Clive, you can make it up. Yes, Trump has had a clear victory, but it is well short of a landslide. In fact, his proportion of the popular vote, the vote that counts in all other democracies, is about the same a Hilary Clinton’s in 2016, but the Electoral College put Trump in. Remember Hilary? She’s the person that Trump’s mob, while he was president, repeatedly chanted “Lock her up! Jail the bitch!” This, after she graciously conceded defeat, something Trump has never done to Biden, Rember too, the insurrection of Congress to overturn the election – you characterised it as “a gathering”. And how about Trump trying, with some success, undermining the constitutional authority of Obama by claiming he was born in Kenya and thus unqualified to be president.
You detect an air of excitement in Trump’s victory, and yes, there certainly is. But I sense a deep sense of foreboding, and it is felt by a great portion of U S society. Moreover, unlike the excitement, it is overwhelmingly the feeling of much of the world, especially in democratic counties.
I have no doubt that the excitement will soon fad, and it might start as early as his first day in office, with his pardoning of the convicted insurrectionists, as he has promise. He may even pardon himself. Don’t forget that he doesn’t just have a Republican Congress, but a compliant Supreme Court, so who’ll stop him?
Trump to me is a horrible and dangerous man - and no, I don’t ‘hate’ him, as you insist. I came to that conclusion at the very outset when he openly and publicly mocked a physically handicapped man. Such cruelty told me all I needed to know about Trump, devoid of morality, decency and empathy. Just look at the appalling way he has treated women. And the lying, and insulting name calling.
Clive, he’s your man, and you’re welcome to him. I think history will prove me right. We will just have to wait for its verdict. It may take some time. But then again, it may not.
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