By Mark Young

mark.young@manateeherald.com

Irony is a unique aspect of life we often don’t appreciate as a big part of the human condition.

It is an ever present force of nature that can either bolster our journey or hinder it.

At times, it can be funny such as Joe Biden saying Elon Musk’s ties to foreign investments is “worth a look.”

Really? Isn’t Biden’s ties to China worth a look? Wasn’t Hillary Clinton’s ties to Russia worth a look? I can say with full confidence that those scenarios are much more dangerous than foreign investment into Musk’s Twitter purchase.

And sometimes irony isn’t funny at all. Such as today’s mentality governing the democratic party and how they vote.

You have 75% of the country saying the country is heading in the wrong direction and yet the democrats retain the senate and it looks like Republican control of the House will be minimal at best.

As much as I dislike turning to things a genocidal maniac said, it’s important to keep doing so to point out the reality of today’s America under progressive attack.

So once again, I’ll point to something Hitler said: “How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don’t think.”

That’s a level of irony that defines today’s democratic voter. I heard some voters say they chose Fetterman because they felt sorry for him and didn’t really like Dr. Oz as a person.

Well, well, well. Isn’t that how we got into this mess in the first place? Sympathy votes and voting personality over policy is going to destroy America.

And now we face a bigger problem and it’s not a new challenge for Republicans. It’s a tired old problem that keeps us shooting ourselves in the foot.

In the wake of what many see as a midterm defeat considering what should have happened, Republicans aren’t uniting, they are ready to go at each other’s throat.

I’m not saying this isn’t a time for reflection and it is most definitely a time to dissect what went wrong and fine tune our message. But it’s not time to fall back into that same old trap where we end up dividing into various Republican factions.

It’s not time to divide. It’s time to unite and try to remember that we have the same goals. But can we do it? History says it’s not likely.

That is what is so unique about Trump, because he did unite the Republican Party under a single banner of freedom. But can he unite the party again while simultaneously already going after his political threats?

That is the question, and I fear the ultimate answer.

We are a day away from President Trump’s big announcement, but how will it be handled?

As we all continue a post mortem on our poor showing in the midterm elections – except in Florida – and we continue to suffer an election hangover, I’m not convinced Republicans will learn their lesson.

There is already an internal power struggle taking place and Trump’s upcoming announcement – and more importantly, how it is handled – will be essential as we look ahead to 2024.

Trump has a tremendous opportunity to unite and heal the America First movement on Tuesday. Never in my lifetime did I ever think there would be a need to achieve this basic goal, but here we are again trying to figure it all out.

We should never have to fight this hard to keep America as the nation it was intended to be.

Trump obviously scheduled this big announcement a week after the midterm election results before the election happened. Trump clearly thought – like so many of us – a big Red Wave was going to happen and his big announcement would be his surfboard to ride.

Well that didn’t happen, so how does Trump move us forward? And can he?

If you have stuck with me through this journey then you know I raised the nightmare scenario of Trump vs. DeSantis many, many months ago.

Trump will not get away with taking on DeSantis and he’s already made some remarks about DeSantis that makes me think twice about supporting Trump’s return.

And his endorsed candidates in this midterm cycle didn’t exactly fare very well so it begs the question: Was Trump actually on this ballot after all and is that why we lost – again?

It’s a fair question and one that needs to be asked.

I hope a head-to-head Republican showdown is not in our near future. As I said during those previous visits, I don’t believe DeSantis would ever consider being part of a Trump ticket given what Trump did to Mike Pence.

DeSantis is a stronger leader than Pence was and while a Trump/DeSantis ticket would be a strong one, I fear for the ultimate outcome and how that could affect the Republican Party well into the future.

DeSantis is smarter than that. Perhaps, DeSantis is even smarter than Trump in that he knows how to enact and verbalize Trump-ish policies without the typical Trump vitriol.

I’m probably getting ahead of myself here, but we’ll see what happens. Trump was hoping to ride the Red Wave into this announcement. I now think he sees this situation as a knight in shining armor scenario where he will feel the need to lead the charge to save America.

Sometimes true leadership is knowing you can delegate responsibility to those who can handle it.

I doubt Trump has given this much thought and decide to come out on Tuesday to rally the country behind a DeSantis run. Especially since he’s already called him DeSanctimonious.

Hopefully he received a quick rebuke from all around him that insulting DeSantis just isn’t going to fly. Especially with me.

So I’m sure Trump will be announcing his reelection bid. At this point, it’s not my preference given the way democrats rallied against Trump candidates.

Trump policies are great for America. I’m no longer sure about whether Trump is, unless he can find a way to get his rhetoric under control. We all love him because he says whatever is on his mind. But it’s not always helpful in the wild world of politics, as much as I love it personally.

We all have bigger goals here and all I want is what is best for this great nation. So all I really hope is that Trump and DeSantis don’t butt heads along the way to 2024.

We don’t need our two best Republican leaders going at it.

We keep having to wait to see how things will turn out. I guess we have to wait some more. Patience isn’t exactly a virtue of mine, but it is what it is.

We all just have to cross our fingers and hope Republicans can hold it together, avoid the infighting and rally behind a single cause: To save this country.

Until that happens, my fellow Patriots, keep up the good fight. We know how to do that in Manatee County and we know how to do it in Florida. Spread our message far and wide.

Stay vigilant my friends. Stay aware and stay informed, and this time around, do all you can to help others across this country become informed.