Trump Is Elected. Will The Chaos of His First Term Hamper His Performance

Democrats Need to Plan for 2028. Josh Shapiro Has the Inside Track

.Many were surprised at Donald Trump’s election, me included, but there is hope in Trump’s chaos and short attention span which may make him incapable of actually doing what he promised. In his First Term he did have some competent cabinet members and White House staff, but he has promised that knowledge, proven effectiveness and competence will not be the highest tests for prospective cabinet members and advisors. Rather loyalty to Trump will be his determinant of who to staff important offices.

But when loyalty is the main criteria, the tendency will not be to hire the best and the brightest.

So, the Trump agenda may languish if people not having high competence are put in charge. It may be like Trump’s First Term where every week was designated infrastructure week where Trump would lay out his program for rebuilding America. But each infrastructure week came and went with no program.

It was not until Biden’s infrastructure program was adopted with legislation passed by a divided Congress that an infrastructure program was actually funded and put into operation.

Democrats can only hope that Trump’s promises will similarly fall by the wayside amidst chaos and lack of attention.

We shall see if Trump II has discipline to legislate and govern.

Now how about the Democrats? They lost by wide margins, not only in the presidential race but also in House and Senate races. We can only hope that the House ends up with a small Democratic majority with Hakeem Jeffries in charge as Speaker.

Frankly, I think Joe Biden is responsible for this Democratic loss. His hubris and ego got him to claim only he could defeat Trump and that he could govern as an 82-86 year old. Biden’s proposition was nonsense. But unfortunately many Democratic leaders went along with Biden’s fantasy as they did not want to upset the President. But Biden’s claim was preposterous.

Then came the Biden-Trump debate when the Emperor’s Clothes came off for all to see that the Democratic candidate was a doddering old man not able to hold his own in a debate against Trump who was only three years younger but who showed vitality.

So Democrats had three weeks of hand wringing until everyone saw the obvious that Biden needed to retire from the race.

If Biden had committed to one term, Democrats could have had an open primary where the new generation of Democratic leaders could compete for the nomination. Instead Kamala Harris was thrown into the presidential race where she only had 105 days to tell the voters who she was and what she would do.

Harris said she was the candidate of change, but when asked by five women on the “View” what she would do differently from Biden, she said she could not think of anything. She had plenty of time to prepare for that question, but she had nothing to offer. She stuck by Biden too long and it reminded me of Hubert Humphrey in 1968 who could not break with Johnson on the Vietnam War and then lost the race.

So, what do Democrats do: investigate Trump proposals, serve as the opposition, and get ready for 2028. Then we can have a primary season of a kind we lost in 2024 where aspiring Democrats could show their abilities and campaign for the nomination.

At this point, I favor Josh Shapiro who will have multiple years of executive leadership as the Pennsylvania Governor and former Attorney General.

Would Harris have won if she chose Shapiro over Walz? Perhaps. But Harris would have done better if she did not evade so many questions in interviews and instead answered forthrightly showing strength against Trump.