It’s been a very turbulent year. We have gotten to the point where we have getting 400,000 covid deaths and people are dying at a rate of 3,000 or so per day. By the time that this article will have been written, we will be very close or at Joe Biden’s inauguration to become the 46th president of the United States.
We are still finding out more information about how closely coordinated the events of the sixth were. On a Twitter thread, an NYT journalist went into detail about the alleged coordination between the people objecting to the election results, the rally, and potentially Trump. We are only in January. I’m going to take a look at the very nearby future and I’m also going to look at the distant future. Without further ado, I’ll begin.
Prediction 1: the rise of Lauren Boebert?
I believe that either Majorie Taylor, Lindsey Graham, or Lauren Boebert will rise, potentially even Mo Brooks. With the fall of Donald Trump, the GOP looks to go to someone else that is like him. Those are the people whom I see who have the biggest possibility for success. They are some of the ones drawing the most liberal angst and that’s where the GOP is right now. With 70% of the GOP not accepting election results, the party seems to be going towards Trump even more. The events of Jan 6th produced virtually no change in whether or not the party saw the events as fraudulent.
Prediction 2: Liz Cheney gets booted from the GOP, more to follow
Liz Cheney has been labeled by the right wing as siding with the Democrats over the Republicans, a sign that even with the insurrection on Jan 6th, the GOP is considering anyone who is going against Trump to be going against them, you’re either with Trump or against them.
At one point, Tucker Carlson called out Sidney Powell for evidence about election fraud, after that Tucker Carlson never seemed to have made another peep complaining about Trump. Lindsey Graham on the Senate floor said that he was out. Out of what you might ask? Out of any reasonable conversation that might make us take him seriously. Since then, he’d come out and accused Pelosi of being the one responsible for the events of Jan 6th, publicly calling on the impeachment proceedings to be dropped in the name of ‘fairness’.
Let’s be clear, it seems to be that if you do not support the conspiracy theory that the election was rigged, you will not have the backing of the GOP. I expect this to play out in a number of ways very quickly.
Prediction 3 : Obamacare is going to be here to stay, will expand, among other things
Conservatives really made Obamacare and Section 230 their target the past at least 2 years. Democrats have taken control over the house, the senate, and the presidency. A lot of conservative big ticket items like the discussions of the investigation on Hunter-Biden which failed to produce any tangible outcome on the election, will be put to the backburner.
While drawing the ire of liberals, make no mistake, groups like the Judicial Watch draw headlines by going after conservative targets. While they may say that they are non partisan, I think we all know that’s not true. Increasingly Republicans have come out, still making the same attacks that they made during the election cycle, as indicated by Lindsey Graham holding the MAGA line even though he gave a riveting speech declaring that enough was enough on the Sixth . This indicates that whether or not Trump is in power, they still feel beholden to the MAGA voters.
Prediction 4: Conservative Republicans will be emboldened
I have to split these next two predictions. I’ve been having my eye on conservative politicians for a while and one of the trends that I see, is that Democratic Senators are saying they are trying to hold Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz accountable, to the extent that they are of the events on the sixth. I see a battle between him and Lindsey Graham over the attention of conservatives. What might appeal to the Democratic base and what might be the right thing to do, such as accountability, may be seen as a lightning rod for conservative politicians. Any attempt to hold conservatives accountable will inevitably backfire and I believe that conservatives will try to use President Joe Biden’s unity theme against the Democrats.
What Democrats do not seem to understand is that by appealing to Trump Republicans not only have gotten access to Trump– they also have gotten access to his voter base. While Lindsey Graham might not have to worry about answering to Trump anymore, he appears on many conservative talk shows, such as Sean Hannity, and wishes to appeal to them.
Before Senator Lindsey Graham got the reputation that he was a reasonable, middle of the road Republican, he voted to impeach the then President Bill Clinton, as I explained in prior reporting, for lying. Bill Clinton had an affair with an intern Monika Lewinski. Bill Clinton was impeached because he was not honest about whether or not he had an affair. When it came to Trump, Trump has been accused of far worse than lying about an affair, but, because his loyalty is to the party, he voted to stick with the party.
This brings me to my next prediction, which, I believe we will see play out over the next several years.
Prediction 5: Establishment Republicans looking to hold on to their seat of power will try to squash their intra party rebellion
Establishment Republicans like Senator Ben Sasse, believe they need to squash conspiracy theories like Q. So they are well aware if they do not deal with it, they might be overran in their party.
While Trump has denied any responsibility, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, on the Senate floor called out Trump for inciting a mob, leading Sean Hannity to be critical of him, calling for him to step down, and, on his show, for Republicans to fight any effort to “legitimize impeachment”. Lindsey Graham on 1/19/2021 on Hannity said that if they legitimize impeachment, they will not have a political party anymore.
Other countries look at events in our nation and are label people like Trump as part of the far right. Look at Bolsinaro in Brazil, and other right wing leaders that follow Trump inspired populism. Additionally, far from being critical of dictators, he sought to befriend them, and has even went on to say they were smarter than Biden.
I do not believe that establishment Republicans are eager to entertain these ideas. This will be an intraparty war that will take years to resolve.
Prediction 6: Biden will get a really big mask deal and secure more vaccines
With the news of the Trump administration’s messing up the vaccine production , I believe that it is only natural that Joe Biden is going to want to take more of a serious approach to the coronavirus than Trump. While the Trump administration told the states that there was more on the way, it would appear that the Biden administration is much more cautious and is trying to be more truthful when it comes to answering questions, and not punishing states for either meeting or not meeting certain criteria.
But, while former Vice President Pence tried to play it calm several times, Trump reversed him several times, as Trump did with several of his former aids. Trump turned down a deal to mass produce N95 masks and have them shipped out to the states. My verdict– while we cannot definitely say whether president Joseph R Biden is going to be a resounding success with fighting the coronavirus, I believe this deal will be a no brainer for him. It is looking like the fight is far from over. But, Biden looks to make good on his campaign promises which included tackling the coronavirus.
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