by Eric Lendrum
Donald Trump is a hero. That’s an objective statement of fact that no fake news outlet or phony fact-check can change.
The only question remaining, then, is: Will Donald Trump be remembered as a triumphant hero, or a tragic hero?
Nothing Is Over
Just as with 2016, the movie-like narrative of the 2020 election was building up to be yet another truly glorious comeback victory from the greatest political underdog in modern history, Donald J. Trump. He was actively fighting against Big Tech, the polls, Hollywood, academia, the media, Wall Street, the Democratic Party, establishment Republicans, the international community, violent anarchist mobs, a Chinese plague, and the deep state—virtually the same rogues gallery he was up against in 2016, with a few new additions and even higher stakes.
By midnight of November 3, he was speeding towards a stunning landslide reelection victory. He had effortlessly taken Florida by the biggest margin for any presidential candidate in 16 years. He had won Ohio by a slightly higher margin than in 2016, which itself was the biggest margin of victory in that state for any candidate since 1988. Turnout from the rural, working-class areas he needed to win was at historic levels, and he had insurmountable leads in the three crucial Rust Belt states. He was winning, and winning big.
The sudden, and nearly simultaneous, stopping of the counts in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia somewhere between midnight and 1 a.m., followed by the abrupt restart and announcement of new leads for Joe Biden in all of those states at around 4 a.m. the following day, are at the heart of the very legitimate and credible claims of voter fraud by President Trump and his supporters.
There is a path for victory for the president, both legal and political, despite the media’s best efforts to pull a “nothing to see here” routine as they rush to declare the race over in favor of Biden, insisting that there is no voter fraud despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
What Comes Next
It has been said before, and needs to be said again: At this point, it is far too late for our Republic as once we knew it.
No matter what happens, no matter whose hand rests on the Bible on January 20, 2021, to take the oath of office, half of the country will deem that president’s term to be illegitimate. Half the country will claim that the election was stolen, either by voter fraud or by voter suppression. Half the country will spend the next four years demonstrating in the streets, whether it be militant communists and frothing black nationalists determined to destroy the country, or furious patriots trying to save it.
To that extent, a second Trump term may matter just as little as a Biden presidency, even if a Biden Administration is as short-lived as some predict it will be in favor of a Kamala Harris presidency. If President Trump does indeed serve a second term, a betting man would be wise to put his money on the likelihood of a second impeachment, for starters.
Should Trump prevail in this election, the media, globalist leaders, the Democrats, and Big Tech most likely will be reading the same four-letter word from the same script: coup. With this one word, often used by Trump supporters (accurately) to describe the deep state’s efforts to sink his presidency with the “Russian collusion” hoax, the Left will begin explicitly making the argument that President Trump is an usurper and a dictator who should not be in office.
What Was Achieved
At this point, the evidence seems to suggest overwhelmingly that whatever victory Trump may be able to pull off will be a bittersweet one, with the president and the nation robbed of the landslide triumph toward which he was heading, and any second term will be marred by even more obstructionism in the halls of Congress and targeted violence in the streets.
But there is still a victory to be achieved here, and it is not the possibility of earning a second term in the face of insurmountable odds, as satisfying as that would be. Indeed, it is true poetic justice that this election fiasco in and of itself, chaos and all, could be a victory for Donald Trump.
Ben Weingarten made a good case at The American Mind, pointing out that President Trump’s greatest achievement was not the monumental tax cuts, the renegotiated trade deals, crushing ISIS, or building the wall; his greatest achievement was exposing the sheer corruption, unholy levels of power, and vicious contempt of the ruling class in our country. It was evident in every single thing they did to try to destroy him over the last five years, with their determination matched only by President Trump’s willpower, fueled by his love of country and determination to save it from the forces that were out to destroy him.
Adding to that, it must be said that nothing has exposed their corruption more than this debacle of an election. Now, at least 74 million Americans are well aware of the fact that the elite will even undermine our own electoral processes from within just to get their way, the will of the people be damned.
The true kicker, however, is not the revelation that they have done this—as cheating surely has been part of our electoral politics throughout our history. It’s that Donald Trump was the one who exposed it by finally fighting back, whereas all other Republicans instinctively would have recoiled in fear. That is why his efforts to fight back now, even if they are ultimately for naught, will still leave behind a legacy that will last far beyond the next four years.
The Promised Land
Indeed, many of his most recent achievements surely will be swept under the rug, undermined, or retroactively stolen from him by being blindly credited to Biden. But there is no denying that he leaves behind a framework for a stronger country in every way possible.
He saved the economy, not once, but twice; he ultimately defeated the Chinese virus, giving us a vaccine in the final months of his first term; he restored American strength around the globe, through more calculated but restrained uses of our military as well as a tougher approach to trade. And he leaves behind a clear blueprint for how an unapologetically nationalist and populist message can, barring mass voter fraud, win electoral landslides and create previously unprecedented political coalitions, even against overwhelming opposition from the elite.
As such, it is clear that Donald Trump has already secured his place in history as a tragic hero. Like Moses, he did what everyone else previously thought to be impossible and led his people out of systematic oppression, with chains, whips, and slavery being replaced by indoctrination, lies, and blind obedience to an elite that never had our best interests at heart.
He exposed the media. He exposed the leadership of both political parties. He exposed Hollywood, academia, Big Tech, and the globalists who are in charge of nations that we previously thought to be our closest allies. He awakened millions to the realities of the culture war that was already raging against us, and the scourge of mass immigration. He drew back the curtain, pulled the wool from our eyes, and led us out of the cave so that we would no longer stare endlessly at the illusions of the shadows on the wall.
But for all his great deeds, Moses never did live to see his people enter the promised land. He could, however, pass on in peace knowing they would get there one day. So too, it appears, shall it be the case for President Trump. The true tragedy of the story of Donald Trump is that he may not see the fulfillment of what he started. But he showed us the way to a better place, and nothing can take that away from him.
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Eric Lendrum graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the Secretary of the College Republicans and the founding chairman of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter. He has interned for Young America’s Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and the White House, and has worked for numerous campaigns including the 2018 re-election of Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22).
