The fallout continues after Saturday's shooting

 

Four days after the assassination attempt on President Trump, there's still an awful lot of smoke blocking our view of the fire.  Unfortunately, that's likely to be the case for months to come.  The fact that the would-be assassin was allowed to get "danger close" and fire several shots is an indictment in itself of the US Secret Service and every other agency involved in providing security that day.  It was an unconscionable failure of policies and systems that should have been so well-rehearsed that they were almost on autopilot.  We've had so much experience of providing security to high-risk targets that this should have been a no-brainer.  Clearly, it wasn't.  Heads should roll at the highest level, and if any element of Diversity-Equity-Inclusion and other progressive buzzword policies can be shown to have contributed to the failure, it/they should be discarded at once and all concerned re-trained using more realistic, real-world-applicable frameworks.

Will that happen under President Biden?  Oh, hell no.  Might it happen under President Trump if he's re-elected, and if he stays alive (despite all the Secret Service, the FBI and other agencies can do) until he takes office?  You bet your life!  I daresay there'll be (metaphorically) a swinging sword scything its way through Washington DC, and it'll likely start with those agencies and people who failed so abysmally last Saturday.

I'm having fun watching the Democratic Party almost fall apart under the strain of deciding what to do next.  I'm pretty sure President Trump boosted his electoral chances very highly through surviving the attack;  most political commentators appear to agree.  That means any potential candidate to replace Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket has to face the very real possibility that he/she will be almost guaranteed to lose, all other things being equal (which they seldom are, of course).  That might spell political disaster for their future career.  To run and fail is much worse, in terms of future electoral optics, than to withdraw from the race out of "loyalty for the incumbent", appear to give him as much support as possible, then commiserate with him over his failure as he heads for the old age home.  Most potential Presidential candidates among the Democrats understand that very well.  I daresay they're now pushing for a Biden/Harris ticket in the confident expectation it'll fail, leaving the way open for one of them to replace it in future.

As for President Trump;  he continues to be the motivating spark trying to light a fire in the Republican Party.  I've been very disappointed in the Republican convention so far.  There appears to be a general lack of enthusiasm, drive and energy.  It's largely the same old, same old pious political platitudes.  Trump's selection of J. D. Vance as his vice-presidential running mate interests me very much, for a number of reasons.

1. Vance, like Trump, has for most of his life been outside electoral politics.  He only entered the Senate two years ago.  Prior to that, he made his own way in life, and comes from what many call the "underclass" of society.  He's a self-made man, in that sense.  That means he understands President Trump, and the two will probably work well together.
2. Vance is young enough (almost 40) to have decades left in his political career.  If he and Trump do a good job, he might be elected as President for one or two terms when Trump finally lays down the gavel.  However, would this be best for him?  He'd end up in his early 50's as an ex-President with very little to do.  He's unlikely to take well to that;  he'll be young and energetic enough to want to do more, but what is there that can compare to the Presidency?  It'll be interesting to watch how this works out.
3. I think it's very worthwhile to analyze those who are opposed to Vance's selection, and their reasons for their position.  He seems to be annoying all the right people!  As one source put it:  "If Mitt Romney doesn't like J. D. Vance, then J. D. Vance was the right choice."

I acknowledge that some have concerns about Vance's background, "conservative credentials" and other things.  To them all, I say:  give President Trump and Vice-President Vance space and time to work.  Politics is the art of the possible, not the perfect.  Neither man is exactly who I'd like to see in their positions;  but they're both far better than every alternative currently available.  We're never going to see candidates who tick every box on our lists.  Let's settle for those who tick most of them, and support them as they get to work.

One thing I must say, very vehemently, is that I'm sickened and disgusted by those who latched on to the fact that Vance's wife is of Indian descent (although born here in the USA).  So what?  Does her race make any difference to whether or not she's a good person?  They also object to the fact that she's Hindu, while her husband is Catholic.  It's their business to make that work for their family, not ours.  Leave them alone to do so!  Racism is still alive and well in the USA, and to see it so nakedly on display in the disparaging comments made about Mrs. Vance is nauseating.  I know some few of my readers are among those raising such objections, which saddens me.  I can only suggest that if they feel that way, they shouldn't be reading my blog either, because there's no place for such attitudes here.

In closing, let me repeat that I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat.  I'm genuinely independent in my thinking, and will always support the best candidate for a given position rather than a political party.  (Yes, that means I might vote for a Democrat over a Republican if the former candidate warranted it, and/or the latter candidate was a particularly poor politician.)  However, in the present situation in this country, there's only one side that appears to be trying to restore genuinely constitutional government;  what President Abraham Lincoln famously summarized as "government of the people, by the people, for the people".  I may not agree with every position taken by that party, but its foundation(s) is/are solid in that sense (unlike their opposition).  Therefore, that side, and its candidates, gets my vote.  We'll "sweat the petty stuff" later.

Peter