Let him rip

Trump is the chainsaw clearing the path for the change we need

Nicole Pappas wrote, “Not since 1941 has anyone in baseball completed a season with a batting average of .400 or higher.”

That was Ted Williams.

With a meaningless doubleheader to play against the Philadelphia A’s on the last day of the season, Williams could have sat. His team was well behind the first place Yankees and the A’s were mired in last place, as usual. But sitting one or two out was not in the man.

Pappas wrote, “He played left field for the Red Sox in both games, entering the day with a batting average of .3995 — which would be rounded up to .400. But Williams insisted on playing to ensure there was no doubt about his mark.

“Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941, going 6-for-8 on the season's last day to raise his average from .3995.

“Williams was 4-for-5 at the plate in the first game raising his batting average to .404.

“In the second game Williams went 2-for-3 to finalize his average for the season at .406.”

Williams did not want to let his team or the fans down. And so he played and accepted the risk that went with it.

Besides, he loved baseball. As Ernie Banks would say in baseball’s next generation: Let’s play two.

Which brings me to President Donald John Trump, who has taken risks throughout his life and turned his millions into billions. Columnist Josh Hammer made the case that Trump is batting .3995 this season.

Hammer wrote, “On the economy, Biden has presided over the worst inflation in four decades, declining real wages, a formal recession, and a historic supply chain crisis. Trump, by contrast, oversaw a generally flourishing pre-COVID economy: the stock market soared, inflation was generally subdued, America became a net exporter of oil and natural gas for the first time ever, and the Black unemployment rate even reached the lowest it has been since that statistic was first measured.

“On the border, Biden has presided over the worst crisis in American history: Endless streams of unknown illegal aliens have flooded over, leading to a massive strain on municipalities’ resources, skyrocketing violent crime, depressed wages for working-class Americans, and the mass importation of terrorism-implicating special interest aliens. Trump, by contrast, may not have finished construction of the border wall, but illegal immigration was orders of magnitude lower than it is today due in no small part to the prudent measures he implemented, such as Remain in Mexico.

“On the world stage, Vladimir Putin did not march into Ukraine under Trump (indeed, it is curious that Putin invaded Crimea during the Obama presidency in 2014 and then waited patiently until the next Democrat president to invade again), and under Trump, Hamas did not infiltrate Israel and kill the most Jews in a single day since the defeat of Nazi Germany. Iran was on the brink of economic catastrophe by the end of Trump’s term due to his administration’s maximum pressure campaign; under Biden, the Islamic Republic has been maximally emboldened to sow the seeds of jihad all over the Middle East. For all the talk of Trump’s chaos, there was not a single major war abroad during his presidency.”

By leading on every single issue, Trump should skip the doubleheader and run a basement campaign where he doesn’t make any waves. Play it safe. Don’t risk losing.

That’s not The Donald that I want. America needs The Donald who exposes the truth that the villains of Washington hide. He sent the TV conservatives scurrying and admitting they were libs in right wing clothing.

Trump and his supporters destroyed the Weekly Standard. Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg and George Will thought helping Hillary get elected would wipe out Republicans and put them in charge. Instead, Fox booted them off the air.

He does not really lead the conservative movement; he takes the heat for it. His policies are shaped by public opinion rather than shaping public opinion to sell policy. That’s the opposite of a politician. He is a good salesman and self-promoter but deep inside, he’s a negotiator.

Washington does not negotiate with outsiders. It demands fealty. Listening to the people is seen as a weakness.

In its infamous and nearly suicidal Against Trump issue, the National Review harrumphed, “He is not deserving of conservative support in the caucuses and primaries. Trump is a philosophically unmoored political opportunist who would trash the broad conservative ideological consensus within the GOP in favor of a free-floating populism with strong-man overtones.”

Well, he is not a policy wonk. He just happens to be right all the time.

His secret is listening to his supporters instead of Frank Luntz. Focus groups are designed to help propagandists hone their message, not their policies. Luntz’s biggest contribution to society was to change the debate from estate tax to death tax, which made it easier to get rid of.

But word games are just games. What Trump offers is action. That is what got him elected in 2016. What cost him in 2020 was covid and election interference by the deep state.

Trump thought getting elected president would make him president. Obama thwarted that by installing booby traps in the government. Trump never got to be commander-in-chief and his handling of covid was sabotaged by Obama’s henchmen. Reagan may have appointed Fauci but any appointee who has held the job 10 years is a J. Edgar Hoover who has turned his agency into his fiefdom. The mission becomes to keep the agency alive and its budget growing.

Trump’s a sharp guy. He’s learned.

But Trump has to stay Trumpy. Playing it safe is dangerous for him because he needs to rally his supporters or lose them to the depression of realizing how high the odds are stacked against us.

Which brings me back to Ted Williams, who played both games of the doubleheader on September 28, 1941, and left there no doubt that he hit .400. He had to because of his detractors in the press, who later denied him an MVP award despite being a rare triple crown winner (the name for someone who leads the league in batting average, homers and RBIs).

The Lord had better things in mind for Williams, who was a Marine aviator in World War II whose only real action was playing in a military baseball league.

His real action came in the Korean War where he made 39 combat missions — including one where his plane was damaged and he had to make a belly landing. They gave him the Air Medal. He was the wingman of a fellow you may have heard of.

John Glenn.

History is not made by men who play it safe. Elect a president who hid in his basement for most of his campaign, and you get the return of inflation, an invasion from the South, a surrender in Afghanistan and war, war, war.

Trump doesn’t play it safe. No one should want him to.