The MAGA Republicans have gradually and deliberately brought down all institutions, ethical, social, and political, including a bastion of Democracy and Freedom, the U.S. Supreme Court (why else a member of the symbol of, and real power to uphold and protect the Constitution, flew the national flag upside down to SUPPORT the disproved claim that Donald Trump won the 2020 election and Joe Biden lost? The Court and its members exist to serve the laws, even when at home, not beliefs or sentiments), and returned American society to a political primordial soup.

After so many years including four years in the White House, the former president has been found to possess a deeply flawed character unfit to even run the Trump Organization let alone the most powerful and complicated country on earth. But the MAGA still sticks with him.

The former president is perfect for a scheme to muddle the political landscape and create chaos. He has proved to be able to throw out words such as shithole countries, Mexican rapists and murderers, easily and naturally. Now he could, or probably was told to, drop big bombs such as Unified Reich.

Senator Ted Cruz dropped another bomb not long ago: secession. They are trial balloons, different kinds of balloons serving the same purpose: bringing down American Democracy and replacing it with a dictatorship.

They also serve another purpose: to condition and familiarize the American people with the idea of dictatorship, only a few years back an anathema to American politics, and Americans.

    Former Vice President Mike Pence is underappreciated. He has even been maligned. He does not deserve it. On the contrary, he is an unsung hero. He was probably chosen to be Mr. Trump’s running mate in 2016 because he was a humble, unassuming, following-order-to-the-letter type of man. 

    Once the real estate tycoon from New York took the seat behind the desk in the Oval Office, everything had gone smoothly like clockwork as meticulously designed by the MAGA Republicans. The FBI director was unceremoniously fired. A new U.S. attorney general was in place to dismiss the Mueller Report. The Supreme Court was stocked with not just five but six safely conservative Republicans. The Department of State was already led by a “we lied, we cheated, we stole” former CIA director. Very well organized and ready for any contingency in case the incumbent president would lose the next election. It was unlikely because he was very popular with the Republicans. But the election could not be left to chance. One more term, then the MAGAs would have their revolution to turn the country upside down. Just one step at a time but soon MAGA Republicans would be forever!  

    Then, the incumbent lost. But MAGA did not panic because they had already had a plan: They would clamor loudly and even violently that the election was rigged by the Democrats. Members of Congress would launch investigations. Legal experts would support the theory the vice president had the power to reject the state certificates, disqualify the Biden electors, send them back to the states for recertification, and the Trump electors would replace them and declare the incumbent the winner. Patriots would flock to the Capitol to demand Congress to declare the election to be fraudulent and the vice president to do his job to reject the Biden electors. A perfect plan.

    History has had a quirky way of making unlikely men a hero such as Michael Keaton being Batman. Mike Pence suddenly found himself in a unique and historic position to decide if the country would remain constitutionally democratic or become a monarchy or a dictatorship or forever MAGA Republican. 

    He had every reason to go with the latter. He would be a hero in the MAGA world. He would receive the highest accolade wherever he went. The incumbent would even reward him with a partnership in the Bedminster Golf Course for his good deed because if he refused to certify the Biden electors, he would eventually create the biggest fortune on this earth worth millions of times the value of a golf course. He would give the real estate of America to just one man, or one family. Then, an executive order would change the State of Indiana to the State of Pence. All was possible and all was so powerfully seducing.

    Then, imagine what would happen next. Anti-woke people would go look for woke people, and anti-woke states such as Florida and Texas would send national guards to subdue woke states such as California or New York. The ensuing chaos spiraling out of control would justify strong measures. The new president would declare a National State of Emergency and suspend the Constitution. Congress would shut down. He would form a new emergency cabinet with at least four heads of department named Trump. He would demand the AG, also named Trump, to issue warrants for the arrest of Biden, Biden family, Harris, Harris family, Pelosi, Pelosi family, Schumer, Schumer family, and so on, anyone perceived as disloyal to the new president. The nation would descend into another civil war.

    Any anti-democratic regime could follow to replace the Democratic and Constitutional U.S.A.

    Another outcome would logically result based on the theory advocated by MAGA legal experts that the vice president has the authority NOT to certify the Biden victory. That perverted interpretation of the Constitution would leave the government forever in the hands of the Republicans because the next, and the next, and the next vice president until the Constitution, so interpreted, would somehow be amended or canceled, would always be Republican who would of course certify a Republican slate.

    Faced with such humongous seduction of wealth, power, and glory, and real serious threat of bodily harm and even death, Vice President Mike Pence did not waver. He put his signature down to certify that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election and was, and is, the legitimate president of the United States.  

    For such a deep-rooted sense of what is right or wrong, the honorable discharge of his duties to the Constitution and the Nation, and his heroic stand against all threats of harm or death, Vice President Mike Pence deserves the respect of all Americans and the people in the world who cherish and appreciate the God-given concept of Democracy.

    He deserves to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Nobel Prize.

JOHN P. LE PHONG, ESQ.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO FORM A TRUMP-DESANTIS TICKET

The obstacle is the former President himself.

He would no doubt consider three factors before he would choose the governor as his running mate. First, whether Mr. Trump would feel comfortable with Mr. DeSantis who is so energetic, youthful, and more importantly, as ruthless as the boss.

Second, could his publicity machine overcome the comparison between the First Ladies. The Florida First Lady is convincingly charming in public. She has a good brain too. In contrast, the former First Lady seems a little stiff and un-smooth in public. The former President would not like that. He has always wanted to tell the nation that he possesses the best. His woman has to be the most charming and beautiful in any setting. Anyone who upstages his wife is upstaging him, something he won’t tolerate.

The third consideration is probably the deal-breaker. With a Ron DeSantis VP, much younger, more energetic, and much more experienced than the President Donald Trump, the party would not indulge in Mr. Trump’s antics any longer. They would want to move on. The possibility of being replaced during his term would never be overlooked by the former President. Thus, his VP could only be someone like congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene or Elise Stefanik whom the party would be scared to death to see either one of them occupying the Oval Office. So, it would do anything and everything to keep him sitting behind the Resolute Desk for the full term.

The Governor could play humble, meek, and always walk three steps behind the boss, just like VP Mike Pence, who was a natural Trump Vice President. But that is something more easily said than done because it has to be real. The governor has a rather stiff personality, and a proud man; he wouldn’t play that role well. And a pretender could not escape the former President’s experienced and sharp eyes when it comes to pretending.

JOHN P. LE PHONG

For almost eight years since 2016, the MAGA Republicans have subjected the public to constant and deliberate lies about so many things. But eight years are too long for lying without harm. At the time one may have thought that MAGA Republicans would have a second thought about lying, they shot the public with another lie, a big and blatant one.

The senator from Alabama, Katie Britt delivered the rebuttal to President Biden’s State of The Union address. Was she so designated by the Republicans because the senator was beautiful and charming, or because she was willing to deliver another lie? It was refreshing to see a female politician deliver a political speech, not in a Thatcherite manner, direct, straight to the point, but with a soft murmuring voice accompanying every word with a smile. She was totally beautiful and charming.

And she knew she was beautiful and charming. The thing she did not know was how to use her smile, beauty, and charm to make her speech coherently effective and believable. She smiled, a lot, at the wrong sentences or words. She oozed her charm constantly like a schoolgirl trying to impress her teacher and classmates with her smile and charm so that they would not know how bad her speech was.

It was not just bad. The speech was harmful to the nation, and in particular to the American children. And she had to know it was harmful to them because she knew it was a lie. She came from a rural family in Alabama and was elected to the U.S. Senate. Her success was, and is, an American dream. And on camera to the public, that living example of the American Dream declared that the American dream is dead.

She accused the President of creating the southern border crisis then immediately recounted the story of a sex trafficked victim she spoke to in Texas, so that the listener could not lose the connection between Biden’s horrible policies and the rape.

The whole story of the traumatic experience of the victim as told by the senator was a horrific lie.

“I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartel at the age of 12. She told me not just that she was raped everyday but how many times a day she was raped.” It was graphic and a detailed accounting for a girl of 12 to remember.

“The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door over and over again for hours and hours on end. We would not be ok with this happening in a third world country. This is the United States of America, and it is past time that we start acting like one. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.” Horrific! The Biden Administration be damned!

It turned out to be a big lie told by the senator with gusto, fake indignation, and fantastic imagination. The girl was sex trafficked not by the cartels but by a pimp. It happened not in the U.S. but in Mexico. And it happened while George W. Bush was in the White House, 20 odd years ago.

The lie was roundly denounced even by Republicans, but it was too late. The children, probably including Senator Britt’s, had already watched it. They were traumatized by her story: after Trump had left the White House, the evil Democrats let the cartels into the U.S. to set up a shoebox room for a horde of their members to rape a 12-year-old girl “over and over again for hours and hours on end”.

She was passionate about the story. “Over and over again” is not enough “For hours and hours” must be added to describe her outrage.

But it was a lie. And she knew it was a lie because she talked to the victim.

Before the children could recover from their psychological wound, they were struck with another blow, much harder: a parent was lying. Her story was fake, invented and intentionally delivered with the beautiful and sweet smile of a concerned mother.

It would not be hard to imagine the children of a MAGA parent would leave the house in the evening when she came back from work. She would ask where are you going? They would answer a friend’s house. At this hour, she would say. Are you lying to me, she would ask. The children would adopt a Democratic response is it appropriate for you to ask the question? (The question Hunter Biden should have asked “Is it appropriate FOR YOU to ask me that question, Mr. Gaetz?” But he was too self-controlled and laudably non-confrontational to address the question to Mr. Gaetz directly and pointedly. If he did, the MAGA Mr. Gaetz could not have responded “Absolutely” with a straight face.)

That question would naturally pop up in the mind of the children when their parents lied to them. And that would be the real relationship between parents and children in the world of MAGA.

The American people understand the need to save, preserve, and strengthen the Republican Party for the good and stability of the country. But lying blatantly and abandonedly? And publicly supporting those congenital lying politicians?

We have seen a lot of people getting quick fame and even fortune by lying with the MAGA crowd and forget who they are and what they have said. They are politicians, who have sworn to uphold the Constitution and protect the country. How can the Constitution and the country be protected when the very foundation of Democratic America is rotten from within by their deliberate lies. They profess to fight for Christian values and traditions, but do they remember what they are? Do they remember Truth, Goodness, and Beauty? Do they remember the story of little George cutting down his father’s favorite cherry tree?

It is doubtful that individual MAGA Republicans just lie separately and independently. The lies must be part of a well-orchestrated campaign to seize power one way or another including driving the country to chaos and destruction of cherished democratic institutions inspired by Christianity. Non MAGA Republicans need to look beyond their reelection or plum jobs after political life and speak up. One wonders why Republicans with a sense of right or wrong prefer to be passive and silent. The Paul Ryans, the Mick Romneys, the Jeff Flakes seem to have left the fighting arena and left it to the Liz Cheneys, the Cassidy Hutchinsons to fight for the Republic.

Take a very careful look at who would be waving from the White House balcony. If the MAGA Republicans’ wish were fulfilled, we would see in January 2025, a long row of cabinet members, and possibly even Republican members of Congress, raising their right arms slanted upward shouting Heil Leader to pledge their loyalty NOT to the Constitution, Democracy, or the Nation but to the leader, who would be smiling benignly until he shouted to his secret service to arrest a reporter on the lawn for asking a question he did not like. The American Dream, Senator, would definitely turn into a nightmare then.

Once upon a recent past, our beloved Republican leader (I am a Republican) thunderously demanded “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” So eloquent, so right, and so righteous.

President Ronald Reagan stood tall and lifted the country to a lofty height to demand the Berlin Wall be torn down because the wall stood for isolationism, anti-freedom, us-against-them, clannishness, the world being not a community for all but separated into tribes, suspicious and hostile to one another.

The Republican Party, which had vehemently demanded and got the Berlin Wall  torn down, now demanded, even more vehemently, to build a wall on our southern border with Mexico. Forget about the irony, which to the extremist Republicans including some of the once ardent followers of the late president, might just be a word spoken on a planet in a faraway Goldilocks zone that they don’t know what it means. Forget about the moral and ethical ramifications of a wall between people and countries. Forget about the irony and selfishness of those immigrants, children, and grandchildren of immigrants who forcefully and shamelessly advocate their immigration position that “We are in, now close the door.” They load their call for a wall with so much fake patriotism, duties to the country, and duties to protect American values and traditions that crowd out the obvious result of building a wall: everyone would want their walls.

Starting with Mexico. Why would they not build a wall on their southern border? Canadians would want to build a southern border wall too because they were fed up with the American antics. Walls in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, walls between Eastern European countries and Russia, and between Russia and China. Walls between Israel and the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. Egypt and Turkey would want their own walls. Little Monaco would build walls too because they reasoned, every country has walls, why not us? Everyone has reasons to build walls at their borders.

Then the Kari Lakes of American Republican politics would want Arizona to build a wall on its west border to block woke Californians from going into Arizona. In no time, we would have walls all over the country. The governor of Texas would want a very long wall SURROUNDING itself because he did not want immigrants, or anyone without his approval, to sneak into Texas. Florida would definitely want walls to block not just immigrants but anyone who worked for Disney.

From outer space looking down you would see little boxes like beehive cells covering Earth, suspicious and hostile toward, and isolated from, other cells. In a short time, the Republicans would be so exhilarated because they were not bothered by anybody. But little things would start happening: prices of strawberries doubled; grass in the middle-class lawns two feet high and no one to cut it; swimming pools turning green with algae. Then the lives of the privileged would be affected: limousine services stopped because no driver would be available; yachts moored rusted alongside jetties, going nowhere.

Then, big things: Tesla and other electric cars would become obsolete because cobalt was too scarce for building batteries, and computers could not be built because of insufficient silicon supplies. In their own cell-like countries, people would spill CO2 into space at will. No commerce in any international waterways, only pirates and terrorists. Oil would not flow, and food would stay in one place. Travel would be suicidal.

People armed to their teeth would start looking over their shoulders when they walked out of their cell, always on the alert to unfriendly others. Tired of suspecting everyone all the time, the billionaires would confine themselves inside their fortified mansions. Or waking up from their factories’ floor to find themselves alone with their idle machines, and hear nothing but their own cursing “What the f—k is going on?”

That would be the possible future of the US and the world if somehow, the Republicans, against all reasons, could manage to build an American southern border wall.

Would America then have the shamelessness or temerity to admonish, “World, it is getting ridiculous. Tear down your walls.” Of course, one could imagine the answer – an uproarious laughter.

Everyone certainly wants to hear the rationale for building the wall other than the racist theory of the poisoning of the American blood pushed forth by the extremist elements in the Republican Party and the twisted and demagogic arguments by those who know that building a wall is not right or necessary but clamor for it to be built to ingratiate themselves with the people, who they think could benefit them.

The Republicans’ answer to the argument that a border wall is hideous, counter-productive, and outright harmful, is, “Impeach the Secretary of Homeland Security!”

Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis know very well that the Republican Party will stick with former president Donald Trump because without him and his base, the Party would become a junior party or worse, splinter into two junior parties one formed by the Trumpers and another of rudderless undecisive Republicans who just can’t stand Donald Trump but are powerless to wrest the Party from the Trumpers.

So, they wait, ostentatiously supporting Trump but looking up to Heaven every night to pray, fervently, that he would be convicted or at least disqualified for the presidential run, making them the only two viable Republicans vying for being the Republican presidential nominee.

Is it statesmanship? Could either one of them lead?

Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is not worried about former President Donald Trump getting reelected in 2024, saying, “I don’t think it’s going to happen.”  New Jersey ex-Governor Christ Christy does not believe former President Donald Trump would win the Republican primaries. Neither does Nick Mulvaney, his former chief of staff. Mitch Mitchell, the Republican leader in the U.S. Senate has had only critical words whenever he has anything to say, and he rarely has anything to say, about the former president. We don’t know if they passively wish the former president not to run or actively work to prevent it from happening, but they represent a segment of the Republican Party that looks somewhere or to somebody else to find their candidate in the upcoming presidential election. Someone such as Governor Ron DeSantis.

The Republican Party has been in a difficult situation with at least two powerful forces pulling in opposite directions: Mr. Trump’s loyal supporters working fiercely against those who don’t want him to be nominated, among many reasons is the fear of losing the election to the Democrats. In the current political climate with the force against Mr. Trump within the party growing, it is a real possibility. Trump’s supporters see it. The Republicans see it and they work feverishly to find a solution, hopefully a winning one.

Some influencers in the party pin their hope on President Biden’s age, and his mental and physical weaknesses. Sean Hannity played that angle by telling California Governor Gavin Newsom with exaggerated concern for the Democratic Party, and the nation, that President Biden is mentally and physically incapable of being the president of the United States. Ironically, he inadvertently polished the governor, who came out of the interview shinier than before. That will contribute to the dynamics of American presidential politics as discussed below.

The solution for the Republicans is right in front of them. They have probably thought about it but still waiting for the horse-trading deals to be completed before they announce it: A Trump-DeSantis ticket. It seems unthinkable and strange. But such a ticket makes a lot of sense in many terms: huge campaign money, no distraction regarding ideology, an enlarged voting base, a presidential candidate looking good on TV and drawing huge crowds at rallies who would compensate for the rough-edged, somewhat unlikeable but young vice-presidential candidate with vast executive experiences and a forceful character. It is not just a promising solution; it might be a winning solution. I have said that Mr. DeSantis’ presidential candidacy did not make sense in this presidential race with Mr. Trump also a candidate. But a DeSantis vice-presidential candidate makes a lot of good sense. Even if the former president’s legal problems prevented him from running, the Republicans should use the same formula.

That possibility is something the Democrats must consider carefully and be prepared for. Loyalty dictates that President Joe Biden will secure the Democratic nomination regardless of his weak knees or feeble mind. But how can Joe Biden beat a formidable Trump-DeSantis ticket? The answer was indirectly provided by Mr. Hannity. Once in a while, Mr. Hannity provides good service to American politics and to Democracy. By putting Gavin Newsom on his show, he gave the governor a vast forum (the Republicans of course watched Fox News, and the Democrats flocked to the show to see how Newson performed) to convince the Democrats that he is the DeSantis antidote. That leads to the obvious slogan: Gavin Newsom for vice president.

A Biden/Newsom ticket is not just food for idle thought or banter at a sushi bar but is worth serious consideration for the Democrats. How to effectively counter the Republicans’ attack on Mr. Biden’s health issues? How to convince the populace that if something happens to the octogenarian president, the nation will be in good hands?

Vice President Kamala Harris has achieved a remarkable political career and leaves a tremendous legacy. But the Democrats must not forget that Mr. Trump got 76 million votes only three years ago. The 2024 election is the ultimate fight in American politics. It will not be a musical chair game where a Republican Bush as president would not steer the country toward a direction drastically different from a Democratic Gore as president. 2024 will see changes much more radical and extreme than what we have seen since 2016 if the Republicans win again. If the Democrats feel they must win the battle, that means the heart and mind of the voters, they cannot afford to go with symbolism. They have to go with substance that requires a Democratic slate that represents stability, steady hand policy-wise, and experience. That is Joe Biden, who needs a young enough and experienced enough vice president who can take over on short notice the helms of the country. That should be Gavin Newsom who has extremely successfully run the largest state of the United States for two terms and possesses a formidable brain, a big heart, and good common sense.

The power that be in the Democratic Party only needs to convince the vice president to spend more time with her family, and in a year or two she would be appointed to the presidency of a university, such as the UC system.

With Trump/DeSantis versus Biden/Newsom, the 2024 presidential election would be a historic political fight. The divide between Republicans and Democrats is so deep and their hatred for each other has risen to unprecedented levels, the 2024 presidential campaign election would be a political Foreman-Lyle slugfest.

But we the people, the American people including politicians of both parties, need to find a silver lining in this political storm. The 2020 election result with the loser garnering 76 million votes, reminded the winners, the Biden-Harris team, that the governed are not just the Democrats or liberals but also the Republicans, mainstream conservatives, and extremists. That meant everyone’s voice should be heard especially when it was vocal and loud. The Biden administration has listened to and adjusted the Democratic Party’s policies, especially with respect to immigration and dealing with China and Iran, and did it smoothly and effectively.

Should the Trump (or another Republican)-DeSantis (or another Republican) ticket win the 2024 election, they should do the same by looking closely at the number of votes going the other way and tempering their racist and discrimination tendency, especially the myopic and dangerous thinking that once they gain power, they can do anything and will do everything to retain and solidify power.

JOHN P. LE PHONG.

 

Lies by people of responsibility, lies everywhere, repeated again and again in public with relish without shame or thought of the consequences.

A candidate who lost an election is determined not to concede for almost two years, claiming voter fraud without proof. She has lost all her lawsuits but continues insisting that she won the election and asked, and is still asking the court to install her as governor of Arizona or order a new election.

A Democrat said this: “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese,” he continued, adding, “We don’t know whether it was deliberately targeted or not but there are papers out there that show the racial or ethnic differential and impact.” The paper says nothing about the Chinese being less receptive to the virus. It did not say anything about targeting the virus.

In response to the critics, he twitted that the United States is “developing ethnically targeted bioweapons”. That was what he said on the video, repeating the Russian propaganda that the United States has collected D.N.A. in Ukraine to make bioweapons to target Russians.

What is all this about, spreading false claims and repeating them without any facts to support any of them, even when the facts clearly contradict them?

One way of explaining it is that nowadays, it is the easiest way to make a name for the proclaimer and who knows, to gain a governorship or even a presidency. Much easier than showing competency.

David Weiss, a Republican prosecutor, was appointed by former president Donald Trump to serve as the Delaware U.S. Attorney, who Mr. Trump said shared his vision for making America safe again. Mr. Weiss stated many times, including in letters to Congress he had absolute authority to probe the Hunter Biden affair, no restriction, and no interference from the Department of Justice.

No matter. A Republican congressman went on CNN to declare that David Weiss had sent three letters to Congress in which “he (Weiss) corrected himself each and every time” about his level of authority in the Hunter Biden investigation. He did not, and there was no follow-up letter where Weiss corrected himself.

Lies have become an accepted mode of behavior by mostly the Republicans who resort to them abandonedly and wildly. For those who pursue personal gain, it could be argued that it is not against the law. For the Republicans, their excuse is even loftier to fight to save the party from a political quagmire.

In the time we live in, lies don’t matter, no consequences. We are back to the primal time when everything goes with no distinction between good and bad behaviors, which must be scorned. All the efforts to build a civilized society seem for naught and senseless. Is it acceptable to destroy our hard-earned Democratic institutions and a civilized nation so that they can take power? What happens to the Christian sacred belief in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty? “Say It Ain’t So, Joe” sounds odd.

1. Edward Hoover once wrote that the “purpose of counterintelligence action is to disrupt the Black Panther Party and it is immaterial whether facts exist to substantiate the charge … the Bureau feels … that disruption can be accomplished without facts to back it up.” The Republicans take this wisdom to heart. Their fierceness and rigidity put them at odd with the Christian tenets they vow to follow and protect. In their fight against the Democrats, they are willing to break the rules and norms of a civilized Christian society, ready to discard decency. They have tried to disrupt not just the Democratic Party, but seem inclined to shatter the Democratic Institutions, the country and even the Christian civilization.

If we insist on lying with a straight face and shamelessly in dealing with our fellow Americans, and our fellow human beings, little Jimmy and his generation will learn the lessons and create a new world.

And this will be the world they will live in:

-Teacher: Jimmy, everyone has turned in their homework. Where is yours?

-Jimmy: I have already given it to you.

-Teacher: No, you have not.

-Jimmy: Yes, I have.

-Teacher: Don’t lie to me.

-Jimmy: You have to talk to my father. Dad!

-Jimmy’s father: If my son says he has turned in the paper, his paper has been turned in.

-Teacher: He lies. There is no proof that he has turned it in.

-Father: It doesn’t matter if he lies or not. He said he has turned it in. I say he has turned it in. You must accept it, or you will find yourself in a fight. Jimmy will not give up. I will not give up.

-Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. I will get a congressman to say that you have written three letters saying that you corrected yourself time and again that you did receive my homework. I will get a senator to release an FBI memo containing UNVERIFIED allegations that you received my homework, so the public can see for themselves. I will sue you. I will sue the school. I will sue the Board of Education. I will sue the state. I will see you all in court. I will pursue the suing for years until I get a judge to declare that I have turned in my homework.

 

JOHN P. LE PHONG

Ron DeSantis has bet the house on MAGA. The Trump wave was invincible, clearing all debris on the conservative beach, leaving only the MAGA crowd with its menacing energy about to take control of the U.S. He had prepared himself to inherit the empire, standing behind the leader, faithfully echoing his many positions including the risky ones to say the least. A presidential life lasts at most eight years, and at the end of the expected Trump presidency, he would be still under 50, still in the prime of his life. He could wait – with a plan.

Of course, many have seen the MAGA trend and thus many pretenders emerged. How to be standing apart from other pretenders was the question. Every pretender knew the answer: showing the MAGA world that he or she was as, or even more MAGA than the MAGA leader. But action speaks louder than words. Others could only talk. Mr. DeSantis alone had the incredible luck of being in an exceptional position at the right time to act because he was (and still is) a state governor. And he did not hesitate to prove himself to be dictatorial, uncivilized, (calculatedly) whimsical, and practicing to-your-face (as opposed to the traditionally civilized and gentlemanly American) politics to his political opponents. He charged forward like a hurricane in Florida trying to show that he was more royal than the king himself.

Then, Mr. Trump did not win in 2020. No matter. Mr. DeSantis would plunge forward (he had) because he had to take the MAGA banner and run. He was now the front runner and the heir apparent. The king, still a formidable force in American politics, would back him because he had shown that he was the king’s devoted follower. He could not see how his destiny would not be sitting behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. His plan worked so well and so smoothly.

Until November 2022.

The former president, the MAGA dear leader, announced his candidacy for president of the U.S.A. The news was a bombshell inside the Florida’s Executive Office of the Governor. It was a disaster. In politics, the worst punishment for a politician is being irrelevant. And that’s what he is now that the real deal, the original king of MAGA, is standing in the room.

But Mr. DeSantis must make a choice to protect his political future: he could have openly supported the king and tried to preserve his heir apparent fortune, which is now not a choice anymore because he has declared his own candidacy. So, his only choice is to fight, truly fight for his candidacy, meaning the inevitable attacks against other candidates including the king. That would be very awkward and, truth be told, unwinnable approach with the MAGA crowd. And without the MAGA crowd, his candidacy would make no sense.

Legend has it that the women behind the scenes in the Orient, in China and the Ottoman Empire, had excellent ideas to assist the rulers in governing. Mr. DeSantis may have learned something about that wisdom and may win in the end.

JOHN P. LE PHONG                                                                                                            June 3, 2023

The time for women to lead the country and a woman to claim the presidency of the U.S. is now.

All the capable men, Republicans and Democrats alike, for the last several decades have chosen the good life by pursuing money and sex. When they are exhausted, instead of reading it as a sign nature sends to them telling them to stop, that’s enough, they weirdly resort to chemicals to enhance their performance and get deeper into non-political endeavors. The last several years have revealed the decaying of the sense of patriotic and civic duties in American men. Their political behavior has been unfocused, presenting a danger not just from the outside, the Putins of the world, but also internally such as the January 6 riot.

Look at those billionaires. Many say strange things such as taking back the right of women to vote, betraying a shallow understanding of American politics because they do not care to try to understand it. Others choose not to roll their sleeves to get involved in the running of the country but standing aside playing the wise men once in a while giving occasional advice to people in power in order to have access to power. They let the country run by less than sufficiently competent people or by the people who pursue money by way of politics.

Over the years, the competency of women in politics have been proved. Their brain is as brilliant as men’s, but their emotion is many cuts better, much calmer and much steadier. After sex on a yacht (so many male politicians want to have sex on a yacht) men just don’t want to think. They don’t want to act but because they are in important positions, act they must, but their acts are not guided by clear thinking.

On the Republican side, the choice is almost certain between Florida governor Ron DeSantis and former president Donald Trump. Most of the Republicans probably don’t want the former president to run, not much because he may present a clear and present danger to Democracy and the country, but because they are wearied that he would not be able to win. In 2020, he was riding the crest of political electorate influence, and lost. After years of repeating the tiresome refrain “rigged election”, they would not believe he would win, except for the supporters of the former president whom he himself calls parasites hitching his wagon for fame and profits.

Mr. DeSantis has played the role of an extremist Republican well. He is aggressive, ruthless, and fierce not just politically but personally. That extremism and fierceness may have played well in Florida politics but not in Peoria (I borrow the expression). The term “macho” is still not, politically, an English word nationally, and may put off a lot of voters. Not many people outside of Florida, including Republicans, approve of his arbitrary dissolving the Disney Company’s debt-issuing district, or suspending an elected State Attorney for vocally (not in action) supporting transgender people.

That is how, I surmise, the Democrats look at the Republican 2024 presidential political field.

Then, they look at themselves. What do they find? No male name out there is recognizable, let alone a male potential candidate. But several female names figure prominently.

The first name, naturally, is the vice president, Kamala Harris. The last two years did not do her well. Or more bluntly, she has not done well for herself. One can only guess but doesn’t know for sure whether that is all she is, or a Machiavellian plot behind the scenes pulls her down. She therefore is in a disadvantageous situation.

The second lady is the formidable Hillary Clinton. A lot of Americans especially women still consider her the embodiment of excellence as a woman and as a politician. In 2016, she beat Donald Trump by 2.9 million votes. That is an incredibly large number of voters. In terms of presence in front of the camera, she even beat the popular TV show host and a hovering massive body (Mr. Trump was well aware of it and consciously tried to exploit it) in the debates. So, she can be said first among the three equal potential female candidates.

But there is one big almost insurmountable hurdle that she, and her Democratic supporters, must overcome: the revengeful, efficient, and effective Republicans who have been dead set against seeing her in public life. Unless they could find an antidote, something similar to her husband’s “quick-response” team but more ruthless, the Democrats would probably pass.

That leaves Nancy Pelosi, the grandmotherly twice Speaker of the House, friendly, approachable, no scandal, as familiar with American politics and maneuverings as any politician alive. She has just added some foreign affairs experience to her attributes.

Some may raise the issue of age and health. Female longevity is 82, and male is 76. So, she at 82 years old is as young as the former president and younger than the current president. As to health, everyone can observe that she walks faster and more briskly than both the former president and the president. And more importantly, she has full command of what she is talking about.

Nancy Pelosi for President! It does not sound farfetched. In fact, it sounds desirable.

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John P. Le Phong, Esq.