Ruminations following two weeks of relative inactivity at the most important period for an insurgent’s campaign

Ruminating is important. I hope Joe Biden is doing some serious ruminating. Conveniently, after having dramatically disqualifying himself by his walking dead appearance on the most important stage on the most important day not only of his life but arguably in the history of the United States, he has Covid to hide behind. Do did Donald Trump who suggested in his recent snooze of a TV speech that Covid cheating was the reason he lost the 2020 campaign. (I refer you to his lucid 5 minute explanation of all things 2024 on today’s Saturday NPR )

Minutes ago I kissed Claudia goodbye. She is traveling to a Presbyterian family retreat in Iowa for the week with my daughter and grandsons. Its a six or seven year tradition continued which leaves me with a week to campaign beyond Duluth in well populated areas where I am unknown. I had vague plans to be doing that for the last two inactive weeks. Its not just better late than never calling me. Its the product of one of my recent ruminations. The question I ruminated about was is it possible that a Democratic victory in will simply delay the newly created Trumplican Party or will it abort it for years to come?

That’s a question I have no answer for but it reflects my growing conviction that I must plan on one more term of a Trump presidency and the many 2025 threats it poses far beyond my lifetime.

HERE”S A PIC OF A DEFIANT MESSAGE I WROTE FOR MYSELF LONG BEFORE FILING FOR CONGRESS IN 2024.

2024-07-20_11-15-17

It emphasizes the defiant end of my recent column in the Duluth News Tribune which ended. I am not perennial I am unbowed.

For America, and far beyond me, is the question I posed about a second Trump presidency is probably the most important. It could only be eclipsed by a question I don’t ruminate about since I’m an agnostic about God. Has Donald Trump eclipsed Jesus?

That’s a hellish idea but I don’t believe in Satan either. I’ve always liked my Mom’s opinion of Hell. The only hell is the one we create on Earth. For me, Trump world comes pretty close.

At the microscopic level is Harry Welty and what he’s doing to avert a catastrophe. Five weeks ago one of my supporters asked me a question that has haunted with ever since: Why will this campaign be any different from your previous campaigns? In reply to a question I couldn’t really answer I spent three weeks putting up 250 lawnsigns all over Duluth. That vastly increased my ID but since Duluth’s voting population only amounts to about 20 percent of the total for the vast Eighth District its a drop in the bucket. It does suggest if I put up signs where another 50% of the voters live it could pause automatic votes for Pete from Republicans and it could entice Democrats to cross party voting in the Aug 13 primary.

I don’t know how many early votes will be cast but I no longer have the confidence I had when the primary was six months away.

So in the last few days I’ve decided that if Trump is the president, and I’m working on the assumption that this will happen, it is my intention to build on what I’ve done this year to cripple Trumpism in any legitimate way I can over the next two years. Just as I began this campaign with a lot of campaign flyers and lawnsigns from two years ago I have even more of both now that I could use in the future. If I don’t lie fallow for two years like I did after the 2022 election I could use the interregnum to work on a POL. A party of Lincoln that would vote in primaries for whoever the centrist candidates were.

Why not simply become a Democrat? That is yet another question that has been thrown at me for a couple decades. If I write a volume two of my first book I will address this. It never goes away. I opened up an envelope with a glorious $100 donation which was wrapped in lined paper with the comment “I’ve never understood why you didn’t become a Democrat.” In short the answer to that is look at the Republican convention. This is what happened when one party was allowed to make itself an extremist party defining itself as the opposite of the other. I’ve watched that slow boil the frog in cold water conversion for the last four decades. I aim to turn down the burners before the oven catches on fire.




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