A Vote for Trump is a Vote for Biden – Governor Sununu

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

The candidates for the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 2024 seem to be shaping up, falling into two categories: those who walk a thin line by announcing their candidature for the 2024 Republican nomination, which Trump has already announced, without a word of criticism about the Fuhrer; and those who butt heads with Trump like any serious contender for the presidency.

Surely, those candidates who are still cautiously neutral about their attitude towards Trump, will soon summon up the courage to aggressively compete with him if they are serious about winning the presidency. Like the efforts made by former Vice President Pence, at a CNN moderated Town Hall meeting in Iowa last Wednesday, when he mildly criticized the seditious actions of his former boss on January 6, 2021.

Republican Chris Sununu, Governor of West Hampshire, falls into neither category. Sununu (48) was considering a run for the 2024 presidency, until he gave up the ghost a few days ago. Pity, he was one of those Republicans who would have been considered a “normal”, traditional candidate of the Party of Lincoln. In an interview with CNN, he said he chose not to be a candidate as he wanted to have a more “candid, a little more unleashed voice….particularly in moving the party away from Trump”.

He does not tread the white supremacist, authoritarian path that Trump has forged for today’s Republican Party. He is more in line with the Party’s pre-Trump agenda, prudent fiscal policies, small government and the rule of law, and ambivalence about abortion and LGBTQ rights. In other words, a breath of fresh air in the GOP in an atmosphere of the rancid, noisome pollution Trump has infused into the Party since 2016.

A frequent Trump critic, Sununu says his decision was based on the fact that “a crowded primary field would hand the nomination to Trump, who earns just 35% of the (Republican) vote”. He argued “if Republicans nominate Trump, they are just helping President Joe Biden, adding: “A vote for Trump is a vote for Biden”. Republicans will lose again. Just as we did in 2018, 2020 and 2022″.

Another candidate who does not fall into either of the categories described below is former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Christie was a big fan of Trump, in fact was Trump’s Transition Manager after he won the presidency in 2016. He was one of the sycophants who was constantly with Trump till his loss of the 2020 election, the Big Lie and the January 6, 2021 insurrection, which he found impossible to countenance. Treason has now become the only red line many Republicans refuse to cross.

Christie is aware that he has little chance of being elected president, and his main motive is to stop Trump. When questioned about Trump’s base, Christie said, “There’s no such thing as Trump voters. He doesn’t own them. I voted for him twice. Am I a Trump voter? Hell, no, man”.

The cautiously pro-Trump category has already had one casualty in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, currently Trump’s closest pursuer in the polls, though lagging by over 20 points. DeSantis made all the movements of a presidential candidate before making an official announcement on May 24. However, even before DeSantis officially announced his candidature, Trump had recognized him as potentially his main rival. The gloves now seem to be off, on both sides. The electoral war is reaching a crescendo, trading personal insults taking pride of place over declarations of their future political agenda.

DeSantis’ policies are even more Christian, radical right, white supremacist than those of Trump. He is homophobic to the point of paranoia, and has imposed anti-LGBTQ laws, initiating an argument with the state’s biggest employer, Disney. He has already banned books which, in his opinion, are offensive, with subject matter of genocide, slavery, Jim Crow, racism, the actual history of the United States. In his white supremacist opinion, such history will confuse and induce guilt in the minds of white, Christian children. These books, many classics, on history and the Critical Race Theory have already been banned in Florida, Virginia and many other red states.

Tragically, the latest masterpiece to be banned by DeSantis in Florida is the inaugural poem of supremely gifted, 25-year-old African American poet, Amanda Gorman, “The Hill We Climb”. A most optimistic poem about “a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished”. The sentiment which may have offended the DeSantis clan enough to ban the poem is: “We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it, Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy, And this effort very nearly succeeded”.

DeSantis recognizes the Party he represents as this potential destroyer. This is the truth he wants to hide from our children. Of course, he is well aware that ignoring history will only encourage it to be repeated. Which is the dream of the radical red, Trumpian party he represents – a return to a Christian, white supremacist America.

Former Governor of South Carolina and US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley was the first, after Trump, to announce her candidacy for 2024 in February. At a recent Town Hall meeting in Iowa, moderated by CNN’s Jake Tapper, she gave a professionally faultless performance, treading the traditional conservative line on questions about the economy, domestic and foreign issues . At 51 years of age, she represents a new generation of Republicans. Most importantly, she maintained that January 6, 2021 was “a terrible day”, and made a forceful case for US involvement in the Ukraine war. Opinions which would have earned her the wrath of her mentor, Donald Trump, reference to whose name was conspicuous in its absence throughout the meeting.

Former Vice President Mike Pence officially announced his candidacy last Wednesday at the aforementioned Town Hall meeting in Iowa. Pence was the most vanilla, sycophantic Trump devotee during his term as Vice President. His job during the entirety of his four years as VP was to be seen on TV, at rallies and meetings, looking adoringly at Trump. He did not have one opinion that was different from that of Trump. He was a paradoxically homophobic, ultra white Christian, reputedly never allowed by his wife, aka Mother, to be at an occasion where other ladies were present, unless Mother herself was also in attendance.

I despise him for continuing to show fawning deference towards the man who tried to have him and his family assassinated on January 6. But he will always have my respect and admiration for the one act of patriotic bravery he displayed when he carried out his constitutional duty on that fateful day. He defied Trump’s instructions to break his constitutional oath in certifying the Electoral College votes, which formally anointed Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States.

He did this in spite of threats to his family and himself by Trump supporters, who were chanting HANG MIKE PENCE, having constructed a gallows at the Capitol grounds for this purpose. He did this in spite of these bloodthirsty killers being 40 feet away from him when he and his family were being rushed to a safe area in the Capitol. He did this when the Secret Service, acting on instructions of the traitor Trump, tried to whisk him away to Alaska, to stop him certifying the presidency. When he was led to the car, he uttered the six words which probably saved our democracy and will go down in history: “I’m not getting into that car”. He was determined to carry out his constitutional duty of certifying the Presidency that very night, as he knew that any delay would have given Trump a second chance to commit another coup, perhaps successfully, next time around.

Mike Pence is the unsung hero of January 6, 2021. No one can take that away from him. Never mind what he was or what he has, and will, become.Tim Scott (58), African American Senator from South Carolina, is a steadfast conservative, who more often than not voted with Trump. However, The Guardian describes his vision for America “as the complete opposite of Donald Trump”.

He thinks that, in spite of Trump’s commanding lead in the polls, “his sunny vision” for America’s future can sway a significant number of Republicans who are ready for new leadership in the party. He is also a single straight man, a devout Christian who is against extra-marital sex, therefore presumably a virgin. As such, he may not be eligible for the presidency, as sexual activity and questionable morals have been, with a few notable exceptions, a sine qua non for many an occupant of the Oval Office.

There are others, entrepreneur of East Indian origin, Vivek Ramasamy (37); former two-term Arkansas Governor, Asa Hutchinson (72); Virginia Governor, Glenn Youngkin (55) and North Dakota Governor, Doug Bergum (66), who may add a little spice into the Republican primary debates, without having a semblance of a chance of success.

President Biden’s stellar performance in the first two years of his administration, and his recent successful bi-partisan resolution of the debt ceiling crisis, only proved that leadership should be judged by performance alone. President Biden’s age has proved to be of little consequence during his first term, which is proving to be one of the most successful in history. In any event, if necessity arises for whatever reason, the Democrats have a Vice President in Kamala Harris in the wings, and a depth of leaders eminently capable of seamlessly continuing with President Biden’s progressive policies,

Most Republicans, but for the extreme Christian white supremacists, have had it with Trump’s vulgarity, lies and ongoing indictments. Also, Trump’s continuing legal woes, recently exacerbated by his former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows having agreed to testify, on grounds of immunity, at the Special Counsel’s investigation of the Documents scandal, may have finally sealed his fate. He will be running his campaign with indictments on multiple felonies hanging over his head.

If the Republicans present Trump, or any other radical-red, MAGA alternative as their 2024 candidate, the Party will lose to 82-year-old Biden by a margin which even Trump would not dare dispute. Even if the Republicans choose a moderate conservative, I believe Trump’s violent efforts to overturn a legally constituted election and destroy our democracy may have scuttled the Party’s political aspirations to the presidency and Congress for the next few elections.