Are We There Yet?

Some reflections on the day ahead.

Each election cycle gets more absurd than the last.

We’re not a banana republic. That’s an insult to the determination and organization it takes to run a banana republic. We’re a banana peel republic, a slapstick comedy of corruption and disconnect. We have become a parody at this point, an Abbot and Costello version of what we were.

But for better or worse this particular chapter is finally nearly over. Who will win?

What does “winning” even mean anymore?

But all that aside, who do I want to win?

Well, I know the answer to that question, mostly.

Donald Trump.

Why? you ask.

Well, not really because I think he’s going to save us all. Even if Trump wins, he’s going to be swimming upstream.

Let’s list what Trump has going against him, shall we?

1. The Democrats, who are going to make his life hell from the beginning.

   Can they really stop him from being president? No. The Supreme Court would throw it out right away for the same reason they threw out the states’ attempts to keep Trump off the ballot. We may be a banana peel republic, but we have at least a patina of respectability left in the Supreme Court.

2. The Republicans. You know why I have rarely voted Republican in my life? Because in general they sell out the working class to the interests of the corporations while giving into the worst instincts of the culture wars to try to keep their base happy. That’s what Republicans do. Oh, and in my lifetime, they also have discovered they like war . . . a lot.

3. Trump. I don’t need to say more. If you know what I’m talking about, you know. He has better people around him this time, but will he listen?

   

   Yeah, I’m not betting on it either.

There are a lot of big issues on the horizon.

The economy is teetering. You can’t really reverse inflation. The best you can do is try to raise wages to keep up with inflation without, you know, causing more inflation.

He may get us out of war in Ukraine (because as even the New York Times admits, that war is sputtering to a halt, so time to move on anyway, leaving another destroyed country in our wake). But do I trust him to avoid getting us back in the Middle East if war breaks out between Iran and Israel?

Yeah, not really.

Now I know some say there is no difference really between electing Trump or electing Harris, and if you’re talking certain things (war or spending for example), that’s true.

But the big reason to vote for Trump is that I’d like to have the option to point out what the government is doing wrong or ask, “Hey, so why are we trusting an agency staffed by Big Pharma to tell us what is ‘safe’?” or say “dude in a dress does not make a chick.”

But even at that . . .

When the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 1,000-page Project 2025 report was published earlier this year, cybersecurity experts focused on its radical suggestion to drastically diminish the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and other reimaginings of cybersecurity policy.

But despite the buzz the report has caused in Washington cybersecurity circles, interviews with five former senior Trump administration officials depict a much more moderate [read: status quo] vision for cyber if he wins a second term.

The officials Recorded Future News spoke with, all of whom said they would be open to serving again, said they foresee several changes at CISA if Trump is reelected, but believe gutting it is likely not part of the playbook. Other priorities cited include filling cyber gaps at the Energy Department, creating more business-friendly cyber policies, implementing a Cyber Force and more.

Lest you’ve forgotten, CISA was the nightmare agency at the center of the Twitter files.

From the Judiciary Committee . . .

Although the investigation is ongoing, information obtained to date has revealed that the CISA has facilitated the censorship of Americans directly and through third-party intermediaries. The report also details how:

• CISA considered the creation of an anti-misinformation “rapid response team” capable of physically deploying across the United States.

• CISA moved its censorship operation to a CISA-funded non-profit after CISA and the Biden Administration were sued in federal court, implicitly admitting that its censorship activities are unconstitutional.

• CISA wanted to use the same CISA-funded non-profit as its mouthpiece to “avoid the appearance of government propaganda.”

• Members of CISA’s advisory committee agonized that it was “only a matter of time before someone realizes we exist and starts asking about our work.”

• In response to mounting public scrutiny, CISA scrubbed its website of references to its domestic surveillance and censorship activities.

This is not an agency you want to allow to continue to exist, in any form. But there are no signs that Trump plans to make any attempt to shut it down.

And why would he? It’s not like there aren’t elements of the “right” that don’t like censorship when it serves their purposes.

Read that last line: “This has all been exacerbated by the disappearance of gatekeepers and overall quality control within the post-establishmentarian right.”

Yes, Chris Rufo is all for censorship of things that he deems harmful to his own cause, and Chris Rufo is hardly an outlier.

Bari Weiss, Ben Shapiro, and Dave Rubin, avowed champions of free speech, discovered they are just fine with censorship and cancel culture when it comes to the subject of Israel. With friends like these . . .

Will Trump be strong enough to face down this segment of his base?

I kind of doubt it. That whole Trump being Trump thing.

So that is like the impossible dream.

No, the one reason I voted for Trump was the same reason I voted for him in 2016.

He breaks people’s minds and makes the establishment froth at the mouth.

I have no idea why, other than some people are just that fragile and those bubbles are pretty damn durable, but he drives all the right people crazy. And those same people have been driving the rest of crazy, so . . . the enemy of my enemy and all that.

And that is an outcome I can be fairly sure of.

Now if Kamala wins (with all the caveats and qualifications that word comes with), is it time to start panicking?

Not really.

The GOP is set to take the Senate (the House is a bit more iffy). Queen Kami’s puppeteers will have a limited ability to wreak havoc legislatively.

Now, as for what the executive branch has control over? Well, just expect more of what we had under Biden.

The worst consequence of Kamala Harris winning however is that the most immature people have been rewarded for their antics and immaturity. But we’ve been here before.

And we didn’t get like this in a day, so we’re not going to turn things around in a day.

Even if Trump loses, that doesn’t mean things aren’t trending in the right direction.

• Mainstream media is dying a much deserved death and being replaced by independent media, and they know it, which has led to at least some flickers of awareness. Honestly, JD Vance should metaphorically kick Jake’s behind more often. It makes him a better person.

• A political realignment along populist lines is taking place. Finally, people are working with those they have something in common with rather than those that check the same statistical boxes.

• People are waking up, maybe not fast enough for our taste, but people are waking up.

So however this turns out at the end of the day (or the week, given how fast the most advanced nation on the planet can’t count its ballots), there are reasons to be optimistic.

And, hey, at least we’ll have moments like this to look forward to for the next four to eight years.

I bet she did.

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So do you watch the polls or do you just go to bed early and let the results surprise you in the morning?

I always say I’m going to do one but then do the other. (Yes, I stay up and drive myself crazy, which used to be its own reward because the votes came in, but now . . . you can stay up all night and still not know. So . . . maybe I’ll just let my sister text me in the wee hours of the morning.)