Welcome to 2022. I have some thoughts.

Happy New Year, dear readers! I’ve returned from oblivion with a new look and more stored up thoughts than I know what to do with. I’m going to dump a few of them into this post so I can better focus on the substance of what’s to come in the new year, especially the 2022 midterm elections. It’s good to be back!

Today’s topics:

• The 2024 Republican presidential nomination
• George Jetson
• A thank you for your support of my book
• A preview of what’s to come

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I have some thoughts on the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. I know — what a shocker.

The 2024 Republican Primary is open-and-shut. If Donald Trump wants it — and I believe he does — it’s his. He maintains intense loyalty from a majority of Republican voters, the same voters who believe Trump was a better president than Abraham Lincoln. (Fact check: he wasn’t.) Meanwhile, elected officials in the party have learned the hard way that if they don’t hang with Trump, they might hang separately.

Where it gets interesting is if he doesn’t run. Only pro-Trump Republicans will be able to win the nomination, but they’re effectively locked out of the process while Trump withholds his intentions. Every prospective candidate will defer to him in the hope he doesn’t run, and, in that scenario, they all hope to win his support. His ring will be kissed so much it might have to file sexual assault charges.

The strongest alternative candidate that best captures and articulates the vision of Trumpist Republican voters — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — is so smitten by the former President and captured by his voters that he wouldn’t dream of running unless Trump chooses not to. In a Trumpless primary, I’d install DeSantis as the favorite for the nomination, as I tweeted nearly a year ago. (If you want more random nuggets like that, you should really follow me on Twitter.)

The next question is simply what other Republicans feel like committing political suicide. Mike Pence? It’s possible. Chris Christie? Probably. Adam Kitzinger and Liz Cheney? Who cares? It won’t matter. They’re bugs, and Trump’s the windshield. Frankly, the more anti-Trump Republicans that run, the more they’ll divide the anti-Trump vote. It’d be 2016 all over again.

In some ways, such a foregone conclusion can be seen as good for the GOP, but in other ways not so much. On the positive end, it’s rare for a party without the incumbent to avoid a competitive primary. All things being equal, that should help the nominee avoid damage during the nomination process before then taking a unified party into the general.

On the other hand, the nominee would be Donald Trump. The Democratic Party is reeling. (In fact, back in early August, I tweeted about the upcoming Republican takeover well before that was the opinion of the punditry and oddsmakers. Another nugget!) What began in the Virginia gubernatorial election last November will continue through this year’s midterms. President Biden has proven himself a man well past his prime, with Democratic voters and the media souring on him, which in turn has damaged the popularity of the party. It very much feels, to me, that Americans are ready to go back to a Republican president, but only if the party offers them someone a little less skin-melting than POTUS 45.

If the GOP insists on nominating their Dear Respected Leader, however, such a nomination will be a shot of adrenaline in the arms of a tired Democratic Party (and you know they’re open to injections). Almost overnight, we would see the Obama-Biden coalition reassemble, suburbia included, to spare us Trump redux.

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I have some thoughts on George Jetson

Did you know The Jetsons took place in the 21st century? Apparently promotional materials from ABC dated the show to 2062, exactly one century after it aired.

You know who else takes place in the 21st century? We do!

George himself was apparently 40 on the show. In the episode “Test Pilot,” George responds to his doctor’s belief that George should live to 150 by remarking he has, “110 good years ahead of me!” His Wikipedia goes a step further, precisely declaring Jetson’s birthday as August 27, 2022, during what I can only presume was a heated midterm election that PPFA was accurately predicting. Although Wikipedia lacks a citation, our overlords at Google agree on the birthdate. Of course, Google cites Wikipedia, but I refuse to believe hasty internet research ever leads us to the wrong answers.

This is all my roundabout way of saying George Jetson is about to be born and I don’t see any flying cars or architectural designs for Orbit City. I will say, however, that our robots are looking much more humanlike — and therefore more extremely terrifying — than Rosie.

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A Thank You

I also have some thoughts on gratitude. THANK YOU to everyone who bought and spread the word about my book, “Who Made the West: A Ranking of the 30 Most Influential Figures in Western History.” At its height, it was ranked 20th on Amazon’s “History of Civilization & Culture” subcategory. For a glorious moment, I saw my name alongside prominent historians and their superior works:

That wouldn’t have been possible without you, so thanks again. If you haven’t bought the book yet, please consider it. If you’ve already read it and the mood strikes, I’d love an Amazon review! I’m up to 28 and so appreciative of them.

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A Preview of What’s to Come

Finally, if I can regain your readership, here’s what you have to look forward to in the weeks to come. (I have many more thoughts!) Topics include, in no particular order:

• The 2024 Democratic nomination
• Checking in with Iowa and New Hampshire
• Critical Race Theory!
• Fun with the Senate Pro Tem (if possible)
• Griswold v. Connecticut, Roe v. Wade, and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization
• Elon Musk
• The filibuster
• The brilliance, shortcomings, and applicability of the Federalist papers
• My ongoing frustration with our two parties, negative partisanship, and each party’s drift toward illiberalism

And, of course, the 2022 Midterm Elections, starting with my next post. See you then.

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Today’s featured image was by GDJ at Pixabay.

The picture of Rosie the Robot came from Amazon.

The picture of the robot that will end humankind was pulled from the New York Post.