Entitled: Meet Hillary 2.0
The one thing that really bugged me about Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign was that she truly believed she was entitled to the nomination.
The Hillary people actively lobbied to keep other Democrats out of the 2016 primary because they believed Hillary was owed the nomination after Obama stole it from her in 2008.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden didn’t bail in 2016 because of the death of his son Beau two years earlier. No. He was told not to run because Hillary was entitled to the nomination. His son’s death was just the excuse Joe used to save face. Plus, it gave Joe another opportunity to bring up Beau’s death, and we all know how much he likes doing that.
Why do you think Team Hillary was so furious when Bernie Sanders announced his 2016 campaign?
No viable alternative was supposed to challenge Hillary.
Sure, Team Hillary didn’t mind if also-ran no-name candidates jumped into the race. But they didn’t want a big-name draw like Bernie monkey-wrenching Hillary’s easy glide to the nomination.
Say, do you remember who else ran for the Democrat nomination in 2016? I bet you can’t since none of them are names that easily spring to mind: Lincoln Chaffee, Jim Webb, and Martin O’Malley.
The 2016 DNC primary debates were supposed to be the political version of the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals. The also-ran candidates were only there to make Hillary look good while giving the primaries a veneer of legitimacy. But Bernie bollocksed the whole thing by refusing to pull a Biden and staying out of the race.
All because Hillary Rodham Clinton got it into her head that she was entitled to the nomination.
And here we are, eight years later, and the Republicans have a Hillary of our own.
Donald Trump is Hillary 2.0.
Just like Hillary in 2015, Donald in 2023 believes he is entitled to be the nominee.
Trump and his flying monkeys are trying to bully viable candidates into sitting out the 2024 race to ensure Trump has an easy glide to the nomination.
But unlike that slithering snake Hillary, Trump hasn’t been particularly subtle about it.
Then again, Donald isn’t known for his subtlety. And that goes double for the big-mouth pillocks that make up his campaign.
This past week, the Republican National Committee announced its schedule for the 2024 Republican primary debates, and Team Trump had a collective meltdown.
In a ranting post on Truth Social, the entitled candidate raged with impotent fury over the temerity of the RNC arranging debates without first getting his approval:
“I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them. When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the “questions,” why subject yourself to being libeled and abused? Also, the Second Debate is being held at the Reagan Library, the Chairman of which is, amazingly, Fred Ryan, Publisher of The Washington Post. NO!”
See what I mean?
Completely entitled.
Yesterday, Trump Super Fan Steve Bannon echoed Trump’s tantrum, claiming that the RNC holding primary debates “is an insult to the president and an insult to MAGA, full stop.”
This isn’t 2020, you Muppet.
Trump is not the incumbent president. And he isn’t the head of the Republican Party. He is in the same position as Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson, or any other declared candidate for the GOP nomination.
He doesn’t have veto power over debates and the RNC sure as hell doesn’t need to get his approval on anything.
But see, both Trump and Bannon, not to mention every other Trump Super Fan, believe that Donald John Trump is entitled to the nomination.
Today, Trump declared that debates are pointless since he is “leading by 40 points.”
Keep in mind, not one Republican has voted yet. Trump isn’t leading by anything. Right now, the scorecard is all tied up at ZERO.
Meanwhile, his Suck-Up Army of slack-jawed supporters took one look at the latest Fox News national primary poll showing Trump with 53% and declared victory.
Again, not one person has voted yet.
The Republican Stacey Abrams, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, tweeted:
“The primary is over. It’s time to rally around @realDonaldTrump. We must focus our energy on exposing that fool @JoeBiden, register voters, and funding ballot chasing [sic] operations in swing states. We should not be wasting time and money fighting ourselves.”
“The primary is over” … before a single vote has been cast.
Say, isn’t this the same broad that can’t stop giving lectures on not disenfranchising voters?
So let me see if I have this right.
We must not spend time and money on a primary because Trump’s lead in a Fox News “national primary” poll proves that the primary is over. So let’s just skip the part where voters get to decide and have a Fox News poll decide our nominee instead.
Again, and I cannot stress this enough, not one Republican primary voter has cast a ballot yet.
But Kari Abrams wasn’t alone.
Trump’s son Don Junior echoed Lake, tweeting:
“Take the $$$ they’re going to blow on a primary and put it towards creating a ballot harvesting machine to rival that of the democrats… At this point anything else is just done to get the Swampy consultants rich from primary ad buys and/or skimming a big % of the fundraising $.”
“At this point,” Junior, not one single Republican has voted.
See, the “anything else” that Don Junior forgot all about is “voters deciding who the nominee will be.”
I thought the Trump people were really big on letting voters decide.
I guess that changed around the time they decided that Trump was entitled to the nomination.
Hey, Don Junior, how about you stick to defending Bud Light?
Now, some have suggested that Trump World is reacting this way because they’re terrified that A) Trump will fumble the debates and B) primary voters won’t fall in line and let them have their coronation.
And fear definitely plays a part in this. But I think it’s secondary.
The primary motivator in this is Entitlement.
Trump truly does think that he is entitled to be the 2024 Republican nominee.
Like Steve Bannon, Trump believes he won in 2020 but was deprived of his second term because Biden “stole” it from him. Therefore, he is owed those four years in 2024 to make up for what Biden did to him.
And if that sounds a bit familiar, that’s because it is exactly what the Hillary people thought eight years ago.
Hillary and her Super Fans believed that in 2008, Barack Obama swooped in and took a nomination that was rightfully hers. So in 2016, she and her supporters believed that she was owed the nomination to make up for what Obama did to her.
What also mirrors 2016 is how Trump has zeroed in on attacking the only viable alternative for the Republican nomination.
Just as Team Hillary went after Bernie for having the gall to monkey-wrench Hillary’s coronation, Trump World is going after DeSantis for getting in the way of Donald wearing the crown.
It really is déjà vu all over again.
More importantly, however, this kind of behavior is loathsome and swampy, not to mention insulting since Trump World is showing utter contempt for Republican primary voters.
As voters, we decide which candidate will be our nominee in 2024. That’s the whole point of holding state primaries and caucuses.
To that end, it is perfectly reasonable for voters to have the chance to watch the candidates debate so we can better decide which one will get our votes.
If Donald Trump wants to be the one voters choose, rather than doing his over-the-top impersonation of Hillary Clinton, perhaps he should spend his time and energy trying to convince us that he is the best choice.
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