Sympathy for the Invader?

Reminder to GOP voters regarding the party’s frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination for next year’s election: Donald J. Trump refused to take sides in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in his CNN Town Hall last May.

“I want everyone to stop dying. They’re dying. Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done in 24 hours.”

After Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the former president said the following on The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show on radio:

“I think nobody probably knows him better in terms of the discussions that we have or that we’re having this morning. I knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it. I said, ‘You can’t do it. You’re not gonna do it. But I could see he wanted it. …

“I knew Putin very well. I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him. I mean, you know, he’s a tough cookie, got a lot of great charm and a lot of great pride. But the way he – and he knows his country, you know? He loves his country. He’s acting a little differently, I think, now.”

“Traditional” Republicans, particularly in the Senate, are squarely behind Volodymyr Zelinskyy and Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion. But several House Republicans from the MAGA/Freedom Caucus wing who back Trump on every issue want to cut off military aid to Ukraine.

Whatever your opinion on this or any other issues covered by The Hustings, we'd like to post your civil comment in this or the left column. Use the Comment section below in this or the left column, or email editors@thehustings.news and let us know whether you lean left or right in the subject line.

We'd also welcome your comments on data reporting by our partners at Stacker in "The Most Conservative County in Liberal States." Also, please see the left column below for "The Most Liberal County in Conservative States." Please scroll down this page with the trackball on the far right to read these news features.

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Indictment #71543-23

Ex-President Trump pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 34 counts in the case related to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels (CNN). PICTURED: Trump with his defense team appears at his arraignment in Manhattan (AP Photo). The indictment is "all about election interference" according to CNN.

This Just In – Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz trounced private attorney Dan Kelly for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat in an ostensibly non-partisan race (AP). Kelly was appointed in 2016 by then-Gov. Scott Waker (R) to the state Supreme Court to fulfill an unexpired term, but lost election for a full term in 2020.

Protasiewicz beat Kelly with 55.1% of the vote according to NBC News, and her tilting of the state Supreme Court to 4-3 liberal indicates a successful challenge to Republican-drawn redistricting maps that have made Wisconsin among the most gerrymandered states in the country, as well as the likely overturning of an 1849 abortion ban triggered by last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health that overturned the 49-year-old Roe v. Wade decision.

The race reportedly became the most expensive ever for a state Supreme Court election, with both sides spending an estimated $40 million-plus.

•••

Meanwhile, in Chicago – Cook County commissioner and former teacher Brandon Johnson has won a runoff election for Chicago mayor, with 51% of the vote to Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas’ 49%, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Though both are Democrats, winner Johnson is a progressive contrast to law-and-order candidate Vallas, who is more of a Richard Daley Democrat.

--TL

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It's Super Tuesday

TUESDAY 4/4/23

Donald J. Trump’s ‘defense fund’ raised $8 million in the three days since his indictment, senior campaign advisor, Jason Miller, tweeted Tuesday. Trump is on his way to a Manhattan court for his arraignment, expected about 2 p.m. local time Tuesday.

•••

Finland Joins NATO – Finland joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Tuesday, the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg says. The country’s 800 miles border with to Russia nearly doubles the NATO border with the country. Russia has said it will bolster defenses along that border in response to Finland joining NATO, according to The Guardian.

Meanwhile: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has blocked Sweden’s efforts to join NATO, at least until Turkey’s May 14 elections. Challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu is leading Erdogan in NATO-member Turkey’s polls by 10 points, Reuters reports.

--TL

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Super Tuesday Indications

MONDAY 4/3/23

Hush Money – Former President Donald J. Trump arrives in Manhattan Monday ahead of his Tuesday perp walk on a reported 34-count indictment connected to $130,000 in hush money paid to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump’s indictment came after District Attorney Alvin Bragg reviewed a second payment, this one for $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, USA Today reports.

It is not known whether the alleged McDougal hush money ended up in the indictment which remains under seal until Trump appears in court Tuesday.

That hasn’t stopped Republican leaders … from criticizing Bragg’s indictment following the grand jury’s recommendation. This includes Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, “famous for being just Trumpy enough to woo MAGA Republicans without alienating more moderate voters,” according to The Washington Post.

“It is beyond belief that District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicted a former president and current presidential candidate for pure political gain. Arresting a presidential candidate on a manufactured basis should not happen in America.”

Double-edged or circular argument?: Trump has warned that if he can be “indicated” (see tweet, above) any American can be, uh, indicted for the likes of hush-money payments. Right, say the Trump critics: No one is above the law, not even an ex-president.

Counterpoint: Undeclared 2024 presidential candidates Youngkin, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and ex-Veep Mike Pence have come to Trump’s defense over the Manhattan D.A.’s indictment. Anticipating a GOP implosion under the weight of the ex-prez’s considerable legal issues, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson says he will declare as an anti-Trump Republican.

“While the formal announcement will be later in April, in Bentonville (Arkansas),” Hutchinson told ABC News This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl Sunday, “I want to make clear to you, Jonathan, I am going to be running. And the reason is, I’ve traveled the country for six months. I hear people talk about the leadership of our country. I’m convinced that people want leaders that appeal to the best of America, and not simply appeal to our worst instincts.”

•••

On Wisconsin’s Supreme Court – It’s the state Supreme Court race that “could change the political trajectory” of the Badger State, notes NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. Though ostensibly non-partisan, the race between Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz and former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly is expected to affect abortion rights, Republican-drawn redistricting maps and former Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) law limiting union rights.

Protasiewicz says she favors women’s choice, indicating she will overturn a Wisconsin pre-Civil War abortion ban that triggered after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, while Kelly says politics would not determine how he would rule on the court. Then-Gov. Walker appointed Kelly, a private attorney, to fulfill the unexpired term of state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser Jr. in 2016, but lost election to a full term in 2020.

The Wisconsin race far exceeds the previous campaign spending record for a state Supreme Court race, which was $15.2 million for a 2004 Illinois election. The race between Protasiewicz and Kelly has cost nearly $29 million, and counting, says Wisconsin Public Radio, quoting the Brennan Center for Justice.

•••

Chicago’s Mayoral Runoff – Last, but not least, Democratic candidates Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson face off in Tuesday’s runoff election for mayor of Chicago, to replace single-term incumbent Lori Lightfoot, who came in a distant third in the February 28 general election amidst a spike in the Second City’s crime rate. Vallas is the former special emergency manager of the Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans public school systems who says he will lower crime and improve schools, according to The New York Times, thus conjuring the Richard Daley wing of the city’s Democratic Party.

Johnson is a county commissioner, former teacher and paid organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union who has campaigned on “sweeping new investments in neighborhood schools and social programs,” representing the party’s progressive wing.

Congressional Calendar -- This was to be a quiet two weeks on Capitol Hill. The Senate and House of Representatives are off for Easter/Passover break, returning Monday, April 17.

--Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa

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COMMENTS: editors@thehusitngs.news

Bipartisan Support, Except for MAGA

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plea for continued financial and military aid for his country’s defense from Russia was met with complete bipartisan support on Capitol Hill – almost. Then there are the MAGA Republicans, whose blatant backing of Vladmir Putin underscores their leader Donald J. Trump’s allegiance to the Russian dictator.

Retiring Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) called out two MAGA Republicans on Twitter: “I couldn’t imagine looking at myself in the mirror if I was @mattgaetz or @laurenboebert. Smugly sat on their hands while history was made and a real hero addressed us. Imagine caring more about performance art than real human issues.”

Conversely, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) tweeted, “No more blank checks to Ukraine,” echoing would-be future House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who repeated his opposition to “blank checks” after calling Zelenskyy’s address, “Good speech.” (Washington Examiner.)

New York’s Daily News reports that Twitter deleted a tweet by Donald Trump Jr. with a faked picture of a naked Hunter Biden and calling Zelenskyy a “welfare queen.” The irony of Donald Trump Sr. withholding aid to Ukraine three years ago after a “perfect phone call” from which Zelenskyy declined to “investigate” Hunter Biden apparently was lost on Jr.

But in the Senate, Republican support appeared more solid, far-less MAGA, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell backing the $45-billion package for Ukraine included in the omnibus budget passed Thursday.

And Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) tweeted: “Gr8 to be present for historic Zelenskyy speech Americans & Ukrainians partners for democracy Zelenskyy made that very clear.”

Comment in this column or on the left, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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What’s Right?

Is Herschel Walker’s defeat in the Georgia Senate runoff race yet another opportunity for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to move his party past declared 2024 presidential candidate Donald J. Trump?

If/when that doesn’t happen, how will Trump blame Walker’s loss on McConnell, or some of if not all the rest of the remaining traditional conservative Republicans?

Also in This Column: Scroll down to read Stephen Macaulay’s commentary on Donald J. Trump’s demand to suspend the Constitution so he can be re-instated as president; “Angels & Delirium.”

Whether you lean right or left – even if you’re a defender of ex-President Trump, we want to hear from you. If you are conservative or pro-MAGA, please enter your Comments in the space provided below. If you lean left, please go to the Comment box in the left column. Or, in either case, you may email us at editors@thehustings.news.

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Relief for Never-Trumpers

Wherever the final Republican-to-Democratic count in the House of Representatives ends up, there is a palpable sense of relief among never-Trumpers on the right as well as the left that voters overwhelmingly chose democracy over MAGA-authoritarianism in last Tuesday’s midterm elections. This extends to local and state races, with voters in swing states rejecting election deniers – followers of Donald J. Trump and his Big Lie – for secretary of state positions and other seats where they could have control over the outcome of the 2024 presidential election.

The MAGA election conspiracy boosters have “largely accepted their defeats,” Politico reports, with some “keeping quiet” and others conceding. Good news for American democracy, no matter which side you lean toward.

We’d like your thoughts on the midterm elections and what they mean, in the Comment box in this column or the right column – whichever is appropriate – or email editors@thehustings.news and please list your political persuasion on the subject line.

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Sanders Stumps

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has hit the hustings “to make his closing midterm pitch,” Rolling Stone reports. He plans to visit key battlegrounds “where we think we could have the most impact,” Sanders says, including Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin where Democratic candidates for the Senate are in tight races with MAGA-hatted Republicans. Sanders also will visit Congressional districts where the Democratic Party has given up hope, such as South Texas.

“He’ll campaign on behalf of Senate candidates who aren’t planning on appearing alongside him,” Rolling Stone says.

Upshot: In other words, the self-described democratic-socialist will try to boost Democratic Senate candidates who are fighting off Republican challengers’ attacking them as too far left, a gambit that appears to be working for the MAGA candidates.

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COMMENTS: editors@thehustings.news

…meanwhile…

(MON 9/12/22)

Ukrainian Momentum: Ukrainian troops on Saturday recaptured the eastern city of Izium, a strategically important railway hub that Russian troops have held since last spring, The New York Times reported Sunday. Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, confirmed on CBS News that her country has pushed fleeing Russian troops out of 1,200 square miles of the northeast region of Kharkiv in the last eight days, more than the invading forces had captured since April.

“We have to win, and this counter-offensive shows we can win,” Marakova told CBS’ Face the Nation. She agreed with military assessments that Ukrainian forces can push Russia back to the borders before the end of the year “because of the resolve of the armed forces.”

•••

Better Call Saul: From Sunday’s New York Times’ story about myriad Trump lawyers who have to lawyer-up themselves after working for the former president, this “dark joke”: “MAGA actually stands for ‘making attorneys get attorneys.’”

•••

THIS WEEK ...

The White House: President Biden visits Boston Monday, where he will deliver remarks on Bipartisan Infrastructure already underway and “tangible results for communities and the country.” Biden announces his “Cancer Moonshot” goal of finding a cure, to be held at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum on the 60^th anniversary of President Kennedy’s announcement of his goal to put an American on the moon before the end of the 1960s.

On Tuesday Biden visits the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

On Saturday the president and Jill Biden travel to the United Kingdom for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, to be held next Monday.

Congress: The Senate is in session Monday, with both chambers in session Tuesday through Friday.

Inflation Rate: The Labor Department publishes the August Consumer Price Index Tuesday. Expectations are the rate will fall somewhat from the annual rate reported for July of 8.5%, which itself decreased from June's annual rate of 9.1%.

--TL

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On the Left

Donald J. Trump’s “offer” to the Justice Department to “do whatever I can to help the country” in lowering tensions among his MAGA supporters over the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home for sensitive government documents is being seen as a “threat” by some directed to Attorney Gen. Merrick Garland. (Some conservative media outlets still call the FBI search a “raid.”) Trump made the offer in an "exclusive" interview with Fox News Digital.

Meanwhile, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, has announced he will retire in December.

Opine on these or any other recent issues covered here in the Comment box below, or email editors@thehustings.news.

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The Final Steps to Trump’s Acquittal

By Todd Lassa

Once the votes were counted Saturday afternoon and Donald Trump was acquitted in his second Senate impeachment trial, both sides declared a victory. Because 10 Republicans joined 48 Democrats and the two independents who caucus with the latter party, lead House impeachment manager, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-MD, could lay claim to the “most bipartisan” trial vote ever (click on Forum to read Stephen Macaulay’s commentary on the impeachment trial, “The Long Con”).

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, had it both ways, too, having been among the 43 Republicans in the minority who nonetheless snagged an acquittal because the 57-43 vote was 10 “guilties” short of the two-thirds needed to convict.

“They did this because they followed the wrong words of the most powerful man on earth,” McConnell said on the Senate floor after the vote, in what pundits were describing as the most critical excoriation of Trump made by either side. “There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”

McConnell, who when he still was Senate majority leader before President Biden’s inauguration, told his caucus they could vote their conscious in the impeachment trial, said he voted “not guilty” Saturday because the trial of a president after leaving office is unconstitutional. Last Tuesday, the Senate voted 56-44 that trying an ex-president is indeed constitutional, in a decision that required only a majority decision. A major point in the House impeachment managers’ argument was that if an ex-president could not be tried thusly, it would risk the nation with a “January surprise,” with carte-blanche to commit high crimes and misdemeanors as a lame-duck.

But McConnell forced delaying the trial until after the inauguration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, said Saturday afternoon. The House voted for impeachment on January 15, while Trump was still in office.

Prior to the final Senate vote, Raskin moved to call a witness to give a video deposition in the case. Trump attorney Michael van der Veen objected, and Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-SC, threatened to call many witnesses for the defense, including House Speaker Pelosi, and draw out the trial to disrupt Biden’s agenda for weeks or even months to come.

In the end, the two sides agreed that the statement of Raskin’s intended witness, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-WA, would be admitted as evidence and that defense would stipulate to its veracity.

Herrera Beutler’s statement is that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, had called Trump during the siege urging him to call off the violent protesters. Trump had replied that the violent protesters were Antifa and Black Lives Matter, not pro-MAGA.

“Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are,” Trump replied, according to Herrera Beutler. CNN reported her description of the call Friday night, but according to various news reports, Herrera Beutler told about overhearing the conversation to a local Washington state newspaper and to constituents.

In his closing arguments, van der Veen said the defense was not admitting to the statement’s truthfulness, though the House impeachment managers apparently were satisfied with the outcome.

The trial itself came down to House impeachment managers building a case that then-President Trump called for his supporters to rally on the Capitol January 6 to “Stop the Steal” of his November 3 “landslide victory,” a.k.a., “the Big Lie,” and did nothing to prevent members of Congress and vice president Mike Pence, from the danger of the mob. Trump’s defense attorneys argued that the impeachment was a continuation of Democratic and mainstream Republican “hatred” since before he took office January 20, 2017, and that the trial was unconstitutional.

But the nine House impeachment managers appear satisfied that the trial and its bipartisan verdict achieved their goal overall and are looking forward to investigations in New York for Trump’s business practices, and especially in Fulton County, Georgia, for his phone call with secretary of state Ben Raffensperger. In the meantime, however, Trump continues to maintain control of the GOP, especially on state and local levels. Rep. Herrera Beutler, for example, faces potential censure from Washington state’s GOP and a Trump PAC-funded primary challenger next year for her statement in the impeachment trial.

•Click on Forum to read Pundit-at-Large Stephen Macaulay’s take on Trump’s impeachment trial.
•Address comments to editors@thehustings.news

Now is the Time for Trump to Go

By Chase Wheaton

Everybody watching the news Wednesday, or was following along with events on social media, were quite literally watching history unfold before their eyes. For the first time in our nation’s history, a sitting United States President incited a mob of his supporters to rioting and insurrection at the United States Capitol, as an attempt to overthrow our democracy and the will of the voters, because he is a privileged and egotistical narcissist that refuses to accept the reality that he lost his bid for reelection. Sound dramatic? It’s meant to. There can absolutely be no underplaying what occurred yesterday. These events were the result of years and years of Trump’s hateful, dangerous, and violent rhetoric, dating all the way back to 2011 (when Trump began perpetuating the racist ‘Birther Movement’ conspiracy theories about President Obama), as well as the byproduct of the tens of millions of people that have continued to support him as he has degraded and demeaned the humanity of millions of others, and of our American democracy.

Unfortunately, this exact incident is what many of us have been trying to warn Trump supporters and Republicans about since he first ran for office in 2016. While the specific details of the tragedy that unfolded yesterday, and the general realization that our democracy could have been overthrown, should certainly come as a shock to many, the simple fact that Trump incited his supporters to insurrection, and the fact that they listened to their leader and did what they were told, should not come as a surprise at all. Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Sadly, Trump showed the nation who he truly is back on October 19^th, 2016 when he refused to commit to accepting the results of his presidential election against Hillary Clinton, who accurately described his response as “horrifying.” Since that night, and because his cult-like following of supporters have made it clear that they approve of such behavior, Trump has continued to spout his trademark hateful language and has blatantly given his own self-serving interests priority over the needs of the American people and our democratic government. Words have power, especially when those words are deluded conspiracy theories from the depths of the Internet that are, in turn, repeated by the President and a number of U.S. Senators and Representatives, and we unfortunately saw the effects of those lies come to fruition yesterday on the steps of the United States Capitol. Make no mistake: Donald Trump and his supporters are as much to blame for the domestic terrorism that occurred yesterday as are the insurrectionists themselves.

Now that we’ve all witnessed one of the darkest days in American history (again, not an exaggeration), it’s time for Trump’s supporters and the Republican Party to accept what Democrats, progressives, people of color, LGBTQ folks, and so many others have said all along – that Donald Trump is a dangerous man who inspires hatred and violence in all who listen to him, who is unfit to serve as President of the United States, and who cannot be allowed to finish his term. Trump’s behaviors, actions, and statements make it crystal clear that he poses a threat to our democracy and that, per his own statement, yesterday’s events are “only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again”. With that mindset, Mr. Trump doesn’t deserve to spend another 13 minutes in the Oval Office, much less another 13 days, and so, while several Democratic officials and a few Republican ones have begun calling for Trump’s removal from office, it’s high time that all Republicans put the sanctity of their oath to the United States Constitution above their loyalty to this demagogue and use any legal means possible to remove Trump from office. I mean, if he cannot be trusted to post on social media sites without spreading blatant and violent misinformation, how can he be trusted to oversee our executive branch of government?

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Trump Won’t Celebrate National Pancake Day

By Michelle Naranjo

“Denial is a save now, pay later scheme.”

― Gavin de Becker, "The Gift of Fear"

If you were to look at TikTok, Instagram, or Twitter, you would think it is National Pancake Day. But, alas, it is a passive-aggressive collective statement from sarcastic users to Trump supporters promoting a Million MAGA March, focused on their conclusion that there was widespread voter fraud in the recent presidential election. President Trump keeps claiming there was fraud committed, so they believe it. There are a lot of JPGs and GIFs of pancakes out there.

After 18 failed lawsuits filed in the key states that Trump would have liked to have won, the projected tally is 306 electoral votes for Biden, with Trump receiving 232: Ironically, the exact margin Trump got when he triumphed over Hillary Clinton. Like Biden, she won the popular vote, while Trump didn’t in 2016, or 2020.

Even as the law firms representing Trump in his court battles to regain electoral votes resign from their duties, Trump has committed to proceed with his desperate battle; most recently, appointing Rudy Giuliani to be in charge of the lawsuits. Both Democratic and Republican election leaders in swings states have stated that there is no evidence. They refuse to follow Trump’s last gasp that he doesn’t have to leave office because they will not change their process for selecting state electors. International election observers also stated that there were no significant irregularities.

Super Trump supporter Sheldon Adelson’s Nevada newspaper, The Las Vegas Review-Journal, even told the president that it was time to pack his bags, stating, “Mr. Trump lost this election because he ultimately didn’t attract enough votes and failed to win a handful of swing states that broke his way in 2016.”

A group of two-dozen chief officers of major U.S. companies met and determined that should Trump try to prevent a transition to the Biden team, they would consider stopping donations to political action committees and even relocate their corporate headquarters.

And yet, Trump refuses to concede the election with all of the mounting lack of fraud evidence. This decision not to give in is not denial: He knows that he lost and is acting the sore loser. However, it is a decision that widens the division in the United States and makes the transition of power very difficult for the Biden/Harris team.

If not for the headlines and bizarre tweets proclaiming victory from the accounts of Trump, his children, his press secretary, a few Republican politicians who must have no desire to be re-elected, and a bunch of angry people on Parler, Biden and his team keep marching forward. The week began with a meeting of the president-elect and a Covid-19 response team. Biden may not be getting daily briefings, as is customary by this time post-election, but he is steadfast in getting to Jan. 20, 2021, also known as inauguration day.

The official Biden/Harris Transition Team website has listed the priorities:

Covid-19
Economic recovery
Racial equity
Climate change

Clearly, Biden is determined not to acknowledge the Shrek in the room because that would give it legitimacy. What he is addressing are the issues affecting all Americans. He may not officially take office until Jan. 20, but he is already leading the way. And there will be pancakes.

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”

― Gavin de Becker, "The Gift of Fear"

Naranjo is a freelance writer living in rural Pennsylvania.

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Red, White & Blue Golf Carts at The Villages

By Todd Lassa

By the time former Vice President Joe Biden became the Democratic nominee for president this year, political pundits were still looking at the electoral college map like it was 2016 all over again. Could President Trump maintain his popularity and turn Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin blue once again?

Florida has 29 electoral college votes, however, to Pennsylvania’s 20, Michigan’s 16 and Wisconsin’s 10. It is one of the more reliably red states in play according to the latest polls, along with North Carolina, Arizona and even Texas.

Biden holds a 1.2-point lead over Trump in RealClearPolitics’ Oct. 30 average of 11 polls for Florida, which happens to be the same percentage victory that Trump had over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Four years ago, Trump’s RealClearPoilitics poll average was 0.2 points above Clinton just before the election.

Key to Florida’s choice next Tuesday will be the vote from The Villages, with its 130,000-plus residents, most of them seniors over 55, and many of whom vote assiduously. Residents motor around The Villages largely in electric golf carts. (In 2005 The Villages entered The Guinness World Records with a parade of 3,321 golf carts.) These carts make a great political news story photo op, as many of their owners festoon them with campaign signs.

Before and after the ’16 presidential election, the vast majority of those carts in The Villages were plastered with pro-Trump signs, piloted by seniors wearing red MAGA hats. This time, national media have covered a large influx of Biden-blue golf carts. Is it real, or is it an anomaly, with a handful of outspoken Democrats infiltrating the deep-red retirement neighborhood? Our resident of The Villages and our former GOP official from California discuss, in the left and right columns, respectively.

Please address your comments to editors@thehustings.news

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Greasing the Skids for Red MAGA-Hatted Golf Carts

By Bryan Williams

Imagine, if you will, a remake of the musical “Grease” for 2020, this time with senior citizens in their decked out hot rod golf carts. The concrete Los Angeles River is now a concrete pathway around a pristine Florida 55-plus housing development known as The Villages. Instead of racing for teenage glory and pink slips, these Villagers are in the horse race of presidential politics. Much hay has been made recently of a breakaway group of seniors parading in their golf carts for Joe Biden, when in 2016 The Villages went 70-percent for Trump, according to Courthouse News Service.

All indications point to this election being very close, just as it was in 2016. Trump won Florida by barely more than 1 percent. If it is indeed true that 5.8-percent of senior residents are changing their votes for Biden, this spells trouble for Trump. However, the same Courthouse News article reported that Trump held a rally at the Villages on Oct. 23 with all the pomp, cheering, and excited Trump voters that we have come to expect.

This seems like a hard one to call. Which way will Florida go? We all know that Trump was carried by seniors in 2016 and their support is critical in this round. Will losing nearly 6 percent of The Villages make a difference? Yes. Elections are very close these days. I worked for a California Republican candidate who won an election by 213 votes out of over 25,000 cast. That’s less than 1 percent.

And yet, polls show Florida is a toss-up with 1 percent to 2 percent separating each candidate. There is so much dueling data out there this election year that it can be hard to make sense of any of it. What should we choose? I’ll double down and stick with my prediction that Trump will eke out a win this year. It will be close -- a photo finish between blue Biden- and red MAGA-bedecked golf carts.

Williams is a mental health professional and former Republican party official in California.

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