{"id":5478,"date":"2023-09-15T12:25:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-15T17:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=5478"},"modified":"2023-09-15T12:25:09","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T17:25:09","slug":"why-trump-leads-all-gop-contenders-not-as-mystifying-as-some-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/?p=5478","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump Leads All GOP Contenders \u2026 Not as Mystifying as Some Think"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%20757%20425'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-48.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"zeen-lazy-load-base zeen-lazy-load wp-image-5479\" style=\"width:757px;height:425px\" width=\"757\" height=\"425\"\/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-48.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5479\" style=\"width:757px;height:425px\" width=\"757\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-48.png 701w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-48-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-48-293x165.png 293w, https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-48-390x219.png 390w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 757px) 100vw, 757px\" \/><\/noscript><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Surge Summary:&nbsp;<\/strong><em>The seemingly ineradicable popularity of Donald Trump among a majority of Republican voters is not as mysterious as some might insist: His supporters see him as the last bulwark against a Leftist-dominated government which is out to remove their rights and make their lives even more difficult than they currently are.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>by Robert Knight<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2024 presidential election is still more than a year away, but former President Donald Trump appears to have a lock on the Republican nomination, even while facing 91 felony counts in four different courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He\u2019s led the field by wide margins. A Wall Street Journal survey this past week showed him at 59 percent, more than 40 points higher than Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his nearest competitor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the general election matchup, he was tied at 46 percent with President Joe Biden or slightly ahead in some polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr. Biden\u2019s apparent viability is hard to explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His mental decline is more obvious by the day. He presides over the worst inflation in 40 years, with sticker shock at the gas pump and supermarket. He has allowed more than eight million illegal aliens to cross a porous border, along with sex traffickers and enough fentanyl to kill 70,000 Americans yearly. He presided over the Afghanistan disaster. And there\u2019s the metastasizing scandal over his alleged role in his son Hunter\u2019s foreign business deals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr. Biden has embraced extreme leftist positions on gun ownership, climate change, COVID lockdowns and shot mandates, transgender promotion and abortion. His Justice Department has targeted pro-lifers, concerned parents and traditionalist Catholics. A strong majority, including Democrats, say Mr. Biden is too old to serve another term beginning at age 81.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He should be trailing badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Mr. Biden is protected by the media, a branch of the Democratic Party. They spike anything damaging, just as they did in 2020 when they colluded with a corrupt FBI to keep the public in the dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mr. Trump\u2019s popularity stems from his refusal to be cowed by a hostile press corps and for his performance: Three strong Supreme Court appointees (who helped overturn R<em>oe v. Wade<\/em>), American energy independence, $2 a gallon gas, a 1.4 percent inflation rate, record low minority unemployment and a 2.8 percent mortgage rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and brokered a treaty between Israel and two Arab nations. He required federal agencies to eliminate several regulations for every new one, and he called out China for its predatory policies. He launched the Space Force and was rebuilding our military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Life was better for everyone except leftwing sourpusses and America\u2019s enemies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But something else looms large in Mr. Trump\u2019s favor: It\u2019s a growing fear among many Americans that we\u2019re losing our self-governing republic to a regime that will do anything to stay in power, from vote fraud to criminalizing political opponents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No other president has ever been subjected to \u201clawfare\u201d like Mr. Trump and his associates. The Democrat\u2019 game plan is obvious: Damage him so much that he\u2019ll win the GOP nomination out of sympathy and then beat him in the election by scaring people. They can just blow up the mug shot and make him the focus, not the failed Biden policies no matter whom Democrats nominate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is not a sure thing. Weaponizing the legal system to jail a political opponent before an election is un-American. It\u2019s what happens in a communist or Third World country. Independents, GOP voters and disaffected Democrats could put Mr. Trump back in the White House even if he\u2019s convicted in any of the courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Wall Street Journal poll found that 48 percent of GOP respondents said they were\u00a0<em>more\u00a0<\/em>likely to vote for Mr. Trump because of the indictments. Only 16 percent were less likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like the \u201cRussian collusion\u201d allegations, the impeachment over Mr. Trump\u2019s phone call to Ukraine asking about Biden corruption and the second impeachment over \u201cincitement to insurrection,\u201d, the charges are absurd. All smack of cutthroat politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Democrats want to keep Mr. Trump off the ballot in some states by invoking the 14<sup>th<\/sup>&nbsp;Amendment. Aimed at the defeated Confederacy, Section 3 bars from public office anyone who has \u201cengaged in insurrection or rebellion\u201d against the United States.Special prosecutor Jack Smith, who filed four felony counts in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, did not dare charge Mr. Trump with \u201cinsurrection\u201d but instead \u201cconspiracy to defraud the United States\u201d and to \u201cobstruct an official proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot was bad, but it delayed the Electoral College count for only six hours. Some January 6 defendants languished in the D.C. jail without trial for more than two and a half years. Former Proud Boys Chairman Enrique Tarrio, who was not at the Capitol that day, was sentenced last Tuesday to 22 years in prison. Four other Proud Boys leaders were given sentences of 10, 15, 17 and 18 years. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes got 18 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 1,150 January 6 defendants have been tried and more than 800 sentenced. They wielded no guns or explosives or set fires. Prosecutors plan to charge another 1,000 people using facial recognition technology. This smacks of Communist China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The BLM\/Antifa riots of 2020 went on for weeks following George Floyd\u2019s killing by a police officer. Those \u201cmostly peaceful protests\u201d cost at least 25 lives, injured hundreds of police and caused more than $2 billion in property damage. Authorities dropped charges for 90 to 93 percent of the arrestees, according to the left-leaning Guardian newspaper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Trump supporters say that only he has the backbone and motive to stage an effective resistance.Never Trumpers say he\u2019s unelectable. Maybe \u2013 or maybe not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the moment, he\u2019s a shoe-in for the nomination. But a lot can happen between now and November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Original Article: <a href=\"https:\/\/dailysurge.com\/2023\/09\/why-trump-leads-all-gop-contenders-not-as-mystifying-as-some-think\/\">https:\/\/dailysurge.com\/2023\/09\/why-trump-leads-all-gop-contenders-not-as-mystifying-as-some-think\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Surge Summary:&nbsp;The seemingly ineradicable popularity of Donald Trump among a majority of Republican voters is not as mysterious as some might insist: His supporters see him as the last bulwark against a Leftist-dominated government which is out to remove their rights and make their lives even more difficult than they currently are. by Robert Knight The 2024 presidential election is still more than a year away, but former President Donald Trump appears to have a lock on the Republican nomination, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5480,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5478\/revisions\/5480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}