Abnormal Normalcy – The Hugh Hewitt Show

Fri, Jan 5, 2024  | 
By John Schroeder

Abnormal Normalcy

The host spent a good deal of the first hour and the first of the second hour bemoaning the general state of affairs in the nation and its place in the world.  There is much to bemoan.  As I listened to him run through a list of issues that I certainly share, and I am willing to bet most of his listeners share, one of the questions that has been rattling around in my brain for the last several years inched closer to an answer.

Donald J Trump was a deeply unconventional president.  I do not think his administration’s actions were nearly as awful as the media and many people believe.  In fact in many cases, even most, his administration performed admirably.  But the upset of so many at his unconventional nature caused a furor that engulfed the nation.  His persistence in the polls is the question that has been rattling around for several years now.  While I think that he would again perform acceptably, even admirably, in a second term, I do not understand why the nation would want a return to the sturm und drang, the much ado, the furor that would accompany his second election.

But as I listened to the host’s self-described rant this morning, I began to reflect on how so much of what the host bemoaned this morning was not so much chosen by us as it was forced on us.  It began with Obama, who was far less moderate than he represented himself to be and his governance by “pen and phone,” even after the nation elected an overwhelming Republican Congress.  Then there were the mandates of the pandemic – mandates issued in the wake of an emergency, but not one sufficiently dire to justify the near police state tactics adopted in some parts of the country.  Then there was the election which I do not think most Americans believe was “stolen,” but most Americans do know was, under the guise of the pandemic, irregular.  It is not so much a question of wrong-doing as it is a lack of transparency that leaves even the average American with a sense of unease at the outcome – an unease that the Biden administration has failed to acknowledge and govern in light of, carrying on as Obama 2.0.

Thus, I think Trump’s persistence in the polls is less about Trump and more about the American people wanting to reset.  The pandemic measures were represented as temporary and thus tolerated.  But Biden’s governance which should, in light of the unease, be conducted with soft touches and gentle urges, has been more bull-in-a-china-shop.  Electing Trump again is a way of saying, “Enough is enough!  Let’s go back to where we were and replay this thing over again.”  They also know they have to say this loudly and with force since the opposition has shown a profound deafness to it.  Put bluntly, people know the furor is inevitable, they might as well embrace it and do it with an equal vigor.

Trump is deeply unconventional, but he represents a certain restoration of normalcy in comparison to the last few years.  He may not be ideal, but perhaps he is realistic.