I’ve often said that if Al Gore had been president, 9/11 or something like it would’ve still happened. It may not have happened on this day. It would’ve been March 23 or Nov. 17. And they may not have struck in New York City or The Pentagon. But a phantom menace was brewing in the Middle-East for years prior. We just ignored it. About a month of so before it happened, Bill Maher on his show Politically Incorrect brought up the idea of a terrorist attack by a rogue nation or group. He was concerned because no one else was concerned.
I don’t know why people weren’t concerned. It’s basically been the premise of every action movie, espcially a James Bond flick, for years if not decades. Despite all the conspiracy theories, I still think President George W. Bush and his administration saw it as a way to win a second term and for the Republican Party to get a stranglehold on policies. The problem is in America, we are a knee-jerk reaction society. We want quick Band-Aid answers rather than long-term plans. By the start of 2002, people were looking toward the administration wanting answers.
The probem is that going about Osama bin Laden and al-Qeada was going to be covert missions carried out by very highly trained and skilled military commandos. Many of my conservative friends at the time said this. We weren’t going to war with a nation. We were going to war with networks and networks are spread out all over the place. But W. and his administration had to start the wars in Afghanistan and Iraqi to appease people who wanted results even if it meant bloodshed of innocent people.
But W. and even Dick Cheney knew there were limits. They knew they couldn’t poke the hornets nest too much or else it would backfire. They’re war criminals but they will never be tried for their crimes because what they did could easily be defended as saying, “We did what we had to do during a national crisis.” The problem is W. had the same national policy his father had – none. This explains why many insiders say W. and Condoleeza Rice, National Security Advisor at the time, pretty much ignored the warning reports. That’s why W. sat in front of school children after being told the second World Trade Center had been hit and America was under attack.
The elder Bush was President as the world changed and it was apparent he did not anticipate it at all. He thought he could do everything “that sumbitch Reagan” did and just dangle the threat of communism and the Soviet Union in people’s face. But nothing last forever. However, the elder Bush was smart enough not to start a full-scale war after Iraq invading Kuwait. They could’ve done all the way into Baghdad. But I think it would’ve cost him some popularity. And it wasn’t going to take people too long to bring up how Reagan’s administration had pretty much help Saddam Hussein in the 1980s.
H.W. rolled the dice and he won. And then he lost. The recession that followed hurt America. And his response to the L.A. Riots and other protests in America didn’t help. People turned to H. Ross Perot as a new choice, which took votes away from him and gave Bill Clinton the win no one expected. H.W. also inadvertently set the wheels in motion that would lead to 9/11 by mobilizing troops along the Kuwait/Saudi Arabia border angering Saudis who would plot the terrorist attack. And to think we could’ve had Gary Hart as President and maybe none of this could’ve happened.
As many people talked of freedome and American pride throughout the 2000s and 2010s, they didn’t realize they were setting the foundation for Trumpism and Project 2025. The greatest threat to any society is change. Why? Because people want to be comfortable. When I was working in Americus, Ga., during the municipal elections, the mayor challenger’s slogan was “It’s time for a change.” The incumbent mayor ran a campaign ad saying, “It’s not the time for a change.”
Well, the voters spoke and guess who they elected? That’s right – the challenger. Personally, I didn’t notice a difference except that the new mayor was more friendly. I think people voted for Trump in 2016 for the same reason they voted for W. in 2000, they felt that the choice would be a change. But hearing the word “change” scared so many people when Barack Obama ran in 2008, that it became a bad word.
It must be hard for a politician to realize that the majority of people don’t want you in office, but that’s what you take when you throw your hat in the ring. Sadly, Trump can’t come to grips that he lost. And neither can his followers. H.W.’s couldn’t as well. Yes, he was very qualified. But he looked good on paper. However, the Republican Party is working so vehemently to make sure it never happens again.
Project 2025 has been proposed by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and it’s basically going to turn the Presidency into a psuedo-dictatorship. Most people who work as civil servants in government-related jobs will be terminated on Day One and replaced with more loyal employees. Trump’s mistake when going into the position wasn’t realizing he had to hire a bunch of people. It was something he was mocked for. If anything else, it showed from the start he wasn’t fit for the role.
But terminating well-qualified and skilled civil servants would be problematic. It would put many people out of work as well as putting in those who aren’t qualified for their jobs. This means they will have to be trained and that can take time. So the machine breaks down if this happens.
What Trump wants to do is to go after his political opponents, regardless of their political party or agenda. Bill Barr may not be the most respectable Attorney General this country has had but he had the guts to put his foot down. This is another mistake Trump and Republicans in D.C. won’t repeat again. It’s very likely a lot of these actions will be questions by the Democratic Party and even some Republicans.
The key factor will be Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and if he is still around by Jan. 20, 2025. He recently said he has no desire to retire until the end of his term at the end of 2026 at which point he will be almost 85. However, I don’t think he’ll last until Jan. 20, 2024 at the rate he’s going. How many times has he froze up in private? McConnell is the best and worst thing for the Republican Party.
Trump’s health also brings into question whether he will be alive by the time of the 2024 elections. There’s no way he’s 215 pounds. And the stress of the indictments can’t be good for him. He has never really been a healthy person. It’s also very likely the Republican Party may just decide to cut him loose and regroup by 2028 the way they did with Gerald Ford in 1976. Of course, his poll numbers are rising. The publicity from the indictments is riling his fan base.
But you know who also had extraordinary poll numbers – Sarah Palin when she was announced as John McCain’s running mate. However, those faded over time. And while President Joe Biden has lower approval ratings, people forget that in 1995, Clinton didn’t have the best approval rating and neither did Obama in 2011. I also wonder where are the poll numbers are coming from. I’ve been a registered voter since 1996 and never been polled once.
More people are questioning why Trump is even allowed to still campaign. His recent reception at the Iowa-Iowa State game on Sept. 9 shows that people “in the heartland” are fed up with him. Yes, there were people cheering. But there were people jeering and giving him the finger. Some of the video of him being cheered looked like it was staged. I’m almost certain they could round up several dozen peoples at the game who are supporters.
The greatest thing about this country is that we don’t have to adhere to one political ideology. The problem is that Trumpism isn’t much of an ideology. It’s just policies that benefit the rich and target people who are white Christian men. The rise of Fascist Christian Nationalism 22 years after people stomped their feet and demanded we stop the spread of Sharia Law is a disgrace to all those that died on 9/11 and those that died from the effects of the relief efforts.
It was pretty obvious once the flag waving ended we’d start trying to go after each other at the start of the 2002 campaign season. Some senior citizens from Iowa were interviewed and they said they’re Republicans and they’re not supporting Trump because they need a President who wants to focus on the country and not just on Trump himself. Along with Trump, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy want a country that is similar to Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan. They all want to be in control of everything.
They don’t realize that’s not how it works or how it’s not supposed to work in theory. The Republican Party is just become the party of control. And once McConnell is gone, there are several more dangerous senators fighting for his spot. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), whose only qualification for office is he was a former football coach which means he’s very unqualified, is holding military promotions up. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) are both in their 40s and could stay in their positions for 30-40 more years if we’re not careful. They both have very conservative (and very archaic) views that probably get them a lot of donations.
But seeing how support of Trump hasn’t helped in the last three general elections, it may be premature to say the Republican Party is going to forget the other candidates and what will come out at the trials between now and the Republican National Convention. We’ve seen DeSantis, who seemed their Golden Boy less than a year ago, began to stumble a lot in recent months. And today, being Sept. 11, Trump said the right thing, for a change, by posting on Truth Social “God bless the memory of all of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks. We will never forget.”
In the past, he’s hasn’t been so thoughtful. Shortly after the towers fell, he boasted that he now has the tallest building in New York City, which is not the thing you say ever, unless you’re a cold-hearted narcissist like Trump. On this date in 2013, he posted this on Twitter (which is now known as X): “I would like to extend my best wishes to all, even the haters and losers, on this special date, September 11th.” It was later deleted but the tree remembers what the axe forgets.
In 2015, at a campaign rally in Birmingham, he re-iterated an urban myth about Muslims in Jersey City, N.J. cheering even though that has been repeatedly debunked as false years prior. But even though many people asked him about it being fake, he still said that he remembers seeing it. However, this was actually a chain e-mail that started a few years after 9/11 during the early years of the Iraqi War. Yet the location changes to Detriot, which has a high percentage of Muslims, and it was reported by a Pepsi driver witnessed this and notified a Buddweiser driver as well.
Like most politicians, Trump is using 9/11 as a talking point to get votes and donations. The problem is help for first responders and relief workers who haved major health issues, some terminal, has been a uphill climb worse than the 110 levels of the towers. Comic-actor Pete Davidson lost his father, FDNY firefighter Scott Davidson, on 9/11. Many other people who grew up to be eligible voters lost their fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, grandparents, brothers, sisters and cousins on 9/11.
The axe forgets; the tree remembers. And younger people have better memories. For people to continue to support Trump and how the Republican Party wants to make him into the same type of leader who attacked this country, they need to ask themselves who do they really support and why.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 