Observer

2028: An Election Fantasy

So, do you think J.D. Vance will run for president in two years? No? How about Marco Rubio? And what about the Democrats? Does Gavin Newsom do it for you? How about Wes Moore? Amy Klobachar?

Isn’t this fun, pretending that there will be an election in 2028? Yes, so much fun, even if it’s all make-believe. But then again, who doesn’t prefer a comforting fantasy to brutal reality, other than people who watch those television shows where contestants eat crickets or jump out of helicopters or try to cook a medium rare filet mignon under the watchful gaze of that ultimate oxymoron, a British chef.

Professional presidential watchers have long noted that the current occupant of the half-destroyed White House, Ignoramus Rex, tends to create his own fantasy world, one in which he alone is leading the country into a new golden age thanks to the greatest leadership skills in the history of the human race.

On the face of it, the notion of Donald the Delusional certainly makes some sense. How else to explain his insistence that Americans are prosperous, content, and benefiting from the greatest economy the world has ever seen, all thanks to him. That’s the very definition of delusional thinking.

But what if lots of us are just as delusional?

Last week, a portion of the political press corps set up camp at the annual convention of the Conservative Political Action Committee, where reporters and attendees demonstrated their own form of delusional thinking.

Journalists sought out people wearing their official Trump-branded hats, holding their Trump-endorsed Bibles, munching on their Trump-colored Cheetos. These Trumpers, the reporters said, were facing a dilemma they haven’t had to consider for more than a decade: Politics after Trump, the premise being that Ignoramus Rex actually will move out of what’s left of the White House on January 20, 2029, the day his second term expires.

These poor Trump-supporting souls seemed at wit’s end – although that’s giving them half as much credit as they deserve – as reporters spoke with them about their 2028 preferences. Some were keen on Rubio, others on Vance. Oh, it was all very adorable, this almost child-like belief that we are living in normal times, with a law-abiding president who intends to relinquish power as the Constitution demands after his second term is complete.

As delusions go, this belief in a normal 2028 election cycle is on the same scale as Trump’s insistence that the conflict in Iran is what he calls an “excursion” and not a “war.”

(On a side note, the word that Trump is searching for is “incursion,” not an “excursion.” Those of a certain age will recall that Richard Nixon described his move into Cambodia in 1970 not as an “invasion” – which would have suggested a widening of the Vietnam war after he said he had a secret plan to end it – but as an “incursion,” a word which nobody had ever heard of before. Trump’s advisors no doubt told him to refer to Iran as an “incursion,” but because he is an ignorant fool, he can’t remember the right word. So he sticks with “excursion,” no doubt recalling the word Jeffrey Epstein used when they made plans to travel together.)

It probably is asking too much of those who compose our national narrative to begin saying things like, “Republicans seem to favor [fill in the blank] if there is an election in 2028.” Or maybe something along the lines of, “A handful of Democrats are preparing presidential bids, assuming that Donald Trump does not cancel elections in 2028.”

These phrases would show that journalists are no longer buying into the delusion that 2028 will proceed just like any other presidential election year. Expressing this kind of skepticism might get a journalist fired, especially if they work for one of the Trump propaganda outlets that are the envy of the North Korean government, but that’s not the real problem. It’s that so many political journalists in the nation’s capital simply lack imagination. They can’t conceive of a scenario in which an already lawless president decides to cancel an election to extend his rule – even though that very same lawless president made such a demand in 2020 during the height of the Covid plague.

Those who believe that Donald Trump will leave the White House voluntarily in January, 2029, even as his architectural abominations remain unfinished, are to be credited for their guileless faith in the nation’s institutions.

But for those whose faith has faltered, let’s consider this little excursion into the future: Democrats win Congress in November but Trump announces that the vote was rigged and he therefore will dissolve Congress. Fox News says this is completely within his powers as president. He later announces that at the request of his Secretary of War, he will begin wearing the uniform of a five-star general in recognition of his role as commander in chief. Fox News commentators will explain that this is hardly a scandal because, after all, Trump is the person giving the orders. He should be wearing a uniform.

When he appears in uniform for the first time, Ignoramus Rex will be wearing special medals created just for him. They will commemorate the bombing campaign in Nigeria on Christmas Day, 2025, the kidnapping of Nicolas Maduro, the incursion in Iran, and the blockade of Cuba. They will be arranged on his chest alongside the FIFA Peace Medal.

Patriotic Americans will take to the streets to protest the Trump dictatorship, leading him to declare martial law and the cancellation of the 2028 election.

Does this really sound far-fetched? Only if you’re delusional.