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Bolling: Trump Townhall Takeaways

On Thursday evening I watched the CNN “Townhall” from New Hampshire with former President Trump. Why, I do not know, but nonetheless, I watched the entire thing. As someone who takes politics and government seriously, it was painful. But I must admit that I came away with very mixed emotions.

On the positive side, I agreed with many of the policy positions Trump articulated on important issues like taxes, spending, economic growth, the deficit, the debt, immigration, crime, etc. If he weren’t such a divisive personality, he may have made a decent president from a policy perspective.

On the negative side, much of what Trump said was simply nutty, i.e., his ongoing insistence that the 2020 election was stolen … it wasn’t! His defense of and promise to pardon the anarchists that stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6th … their actions are indefensible, they should be condemned, and they should not be pardoned. His refusal to condemn Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine … Putin is a war criminal and that must be said. His suggestion that it may not be a bad thing for the U.S. to default on its national debt … that would have a devastating impact on our and the world’s economy for years to come.

Nonetheless, I have little doubt that Trump will be the Republican nominee for President in 2024. There appears to be absolutely nothing he can do to lose support among the base of the Republican Party. His following has honestly become a cult. I wish it were not so, but it is, and it pains me greatly to see what has happened to the GOP.

To make matters worse, the Democrats have nothing to offer. President Biden is too old and frail to be running for re-eelection, and his administration has been a failure in almost every respect. His foreign policy has weakened the U.S., i.e., his complete abandonment of our allies in Afghanistan. His domestic policy has burdened the economy with excessive inflation and interest rates, and it will get worse before it gets better with an impending default on our $32 trillion national debt. And he has simply been AWOL on other important issues like immigration, crime, etc.

If there was ever a time that the country needed a viable third party candidate for President, this is is. I fully realize that there is no pathway to victory for such a candidate, but at least it would give serious voters a meaningful choice, and send a message to the rest of the world that we are not all puppets of the far right or the far left.