(ex) Democrats

by Jim Buckley

The Four Horsemen of the Democrat Apocalypse

Call me an ex-Democrat, though I’ve been a registered Republican for more than thirty years.

Many – probably a majority – of my friends (and many of my acquaintances) are also ex-Democrats. And now, many – probably a majority – of Mr. Trump’s cabinet choices are ex-Democrats too, including the president-elect himself.

I know too many former Democrats to believe it is just a coincidence that by the end of the 2024 election season, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s campaign had embraced four hugely influential Democrats who had navigated to his cause, our cause. The four are Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Elon Musk, and Joe Rogan. Put those four horsemen in one package, looking back, there’s no way Mr. Trump could have lost the election.

So, the question is why; why did this high-profile squad, along with millions of other ex-Democrats, reject their past political attachments and succumb to Trump’s entreaties?

The answer is simple: the Democrat Party pushed them out.

Why’d the party do that?

Because the four outliers are free thinkers, and the modern Democrat Party has no room for free thinkers.

Like any socialist-style movement, dissent is not tolerated in the Democrat Party. And, because Democrats had been in power for so many years and its “progressive” agenda had what seemed a death grip on the nation’s priorities, there was no need for the Party to brook dissention. Party discipline was paramount.

Democrat Party leaders – septuagenarians and octogenarians all – haughtily dismissed anyone who would dare point out that some of the things their party was pushing or had acquiesced to were either stupid or wrong, often both.

How do you defend “Drag Queen Story Hour for Tots”? And why would you?

How do you defend embracing biological men pretending to be women and dominating women’s sports? And why?

How do you defend demanding that biological men shower with young women, undress in their locker rooms, share bathroom space? And why?

How do you defend insisting on the use of “personal” pronouns, and worse, punishing those who won’t use them for themselves or others? And why?

How do you defend setting up the bureaucratic nightmare known as DEI (Diversity! Equity! Inclusion!) and then force companies, institutions, and even your own party to adhere to its requirements of hiring based on representation in certain groups rather than expertise or actual qualifications? And why?

How do you defend colluding with America’s intelligence agencies to crush the truth? Why would you do that?

None of that makes any sense.

And it certainly made no sense to Ms. Gabbard, or Messrs. Kennedy, Musk, or Rogan.

Over the past few decades, the Democrat Party has shed many of its previously most trustworthy adherents; party leaders considered those they’d left behind as inconsequential, such as young men and women in the military services, blue-collar workers, non-college grads, white men of all professions. They believed the Party could rely upon academia, government unions, welfare recipients, African Americans, and the up-and-coming various minorities, particularly those of Hispanic heritage, along with a national press that had become subservient and submissive to the Democrat Party. Add to that the many Republicans who bowed at the altar of Diversity! Equity! and Inclusion! and had compromised their positions, their principles, and their dignity. With a stranglehold on those elements, Democrats thought they’d always hold the reins of power, so let the “losers” who questioned the wisdom of their actions go.

Those radical positions, however, have taken their toll on the Democrat Party and have reduced the ranks of reliable union votes and those of otherwise sympathetic minorities.

What Democrat Party elders (and I do mean elders) didn’t consider is that their once loyal minorities – over time – have or will have joined the ranks of the dismissed. Many minority members have begun to think of themselves not as a special class of dependents, but as Americans who wanted to work hard, get ahead, and resented the intrusion of many “progressive” mandates.

For too long we Republican hoi polloi dutifully pulled the R lever knowing that our candidate would either lose or become another weak-willed politician we couldn’t depend upon.

Our candidates (John McCain and Mitt Romney for example) would lose gracefully and be thanked by a supplicant media for “putting up a good fight” or some other blather, as the Democrat machine rolled along. And then there were the turncoats (would-be laughable presidential candidate Liz Cheney and weepy-eyed Adam Kinzinger just two of the most recent).

But thank heavens, we now have a serious and immovable Donald Trump, and not inconsequentially, next-in-line JD Vance.

Revenge of the (ex-) Democrats

Donald J. Trump grew up in the borough of Queens but lived in ultra-blue Manhattan for much of his adult life. He donated money to some of the sleaziest Democrats extant (Chuck Schumer, Mario Cuomo, and many other Democrats, including both Bill and Hillary Clinton). I don’t know how he voted and am not sure if he was a registered Democrat, but I do know he was nowhere near as “liberal” as the climbers… ah, candidates… he supported. I know that because of videos and recordings I’ve seen that go back thirty and forty years in which he explains how China was “ripping us off,” and that he held many of the same positions as he does now in the guise of MAGA: Make America Great Again.

His hit TV show “The Apprentice” and his magisterial takeover of the renovation of Central Park’s Wollman ice skating rink were both admirable examples of unfettered capitalism and free market entrepreneurialism.

Who would have thought that soft born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-his-mouth playboy Donnie Trump would turn out to be America’s Man of Steel? But, after two assassination attempts, two failed impeachments, an armed SWAT intrusion of his home, a series of frivolous criminal indictments, and a half-billion-dollar fine, he’s still smiling, whether serving up fries at McDonald’s or driving a garbage truck, Donald Trump has prevailed.

And what a joy it is.

Long live the ex-Democrats!