Well, that didn’t take long.
Donald Trump will be our nominee. My choice was Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) for a myriad of reasons that I’ve already stated. But the Republican base has spoken, and the man who already got my vote twice will get it a third time. Eyes on the prize. The goal here is the White House, not another circular firing squad.
The next big question is who Trump will choose to be his vice presidential candidate. He has dropped hints that he already has one chosen, but his advisors are being more vague about it. On the off chance that you, dear reader, value my sagacious insights above those of the other five trillion or so online writers currently opining on the subject, here are the candidates I hope Trump is considering for the job:
Ron DeSantis
Shocker, I know. But out of all the former nominees, he was undoubtedly both the most conservative and the most accomplished. This isn’t to say that Trump did not accomplish much while in office. He did, but DeSantis does so with a better understanding of the nature and depth of the existential Leftist threat, particularly from the Deep State, from cancel culture, and from our educational institutions.
He annihilated Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) on the debate stage, not with insults and bullying, but with facts and reasoned argument. In less than two terms, he cemented Florida as a red state for a generation to come, which is more than any Republican has done with any other state, much less a swing state like Pennsylvania or Wisconsin.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
From all appearances, it appears as if the temptations of executive power have not affected Sanders as they have so many others. She still comes across as sincere, empathic, and virtuous. As press secretary, she made short work of the White House press corps, taking the best they had to throw at her and calmly knocking it out of the park. She took the moral high ground against humorless cogs like Michelle Wolf (how’s her career doing, BTW?).
She also happens to be one of the few people from the first Trump administration that he hasn’t thrown under the bus. She supports him without being sycophantic, which, as the comments sections of some conservative outlets regrettably illustrate, is apparently too difficult a line for many people to walk.
Tim Scott
Scott has all the honesty and integrity of Sanders and would take a similar moral high ground if ever elected president. And no, he wouldn’t be the token black guy. Barack Obama was the token black guy. Worse, Obama was elected precisely because he was black and then spent the next eight years insinuating that he was elected despite being black. Instead of helping to heal our racial divide, Obama exploited his race to intentionally do the exact opposite.
Unlike the privileged Obama, Scott comes from a poor Southern background. He didn’t have the international and elitist connections that Obama had. He could use the vice presidency and eventual presidency to invite black America back into the fold, not repel them with racial baiting and DOJ witch hunts. He could be a healer. He could truly be the black president we were denied by Obama.
Tulsi Gabbard
Ok, hold on. Stop! RELAAAAAAAAAX!!! If you disagree, fine, but hear me out. Yes, I am fully aware that she’s a liberal who endorsed Biden in 2020. But since her tenure as congresswoman, she has moved steadily rightward. And she actually is that oft-used but seldom-applicable word: a maverick.
She tells the truth about Islamic terrorism, border security, and transgenderism, and she doesn’t care about which “phobia” label they’re trying to pin on her this week. She’s a former army officer who served in Iraq and who chose to stay there with her unit rather than resign to campaign for reelection. She may lean to the left on certain issues, but her patriotism is beyond question, and she sees the Deep State as the threat to our republic that it is.
The lapdog media quislings don’t frighten her. The fossilized relics we call our elected leaders don’t frighten her. The international Davos jet set doesn’t frighten her. I would rather have her at the podium fighting for me, not because I’m a conservative, but because I’m an American, which is more than the Cheneys and McCains and Romneys and Kinzingers would ever do.
J.D. Vance
His bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy” reads as a window into the mind of every downtrodden working-class and lower-class forgotten American who voted for Trump. His is the Appalachian upbringing that the coastal elites and late-night comedy show hosts routinely skewer as toothless and inbred white trash because there’s nothing more brave and edgy than mercilessly mocking the voiceless poor and their traditional values.
But his self-made career as a Marine, a venture capitalist, and now a senator is a rags-to-riches success story that most Americans naturally admire. Americans on both sides of the aisle are done with the Bush-Clinton Club Membership dynasties and would support one of their own crashing the party.
Whoever Trump chooses as his vice president will almost inevitably be the Republican nominee not in 2032, but in 2028. Trump is surprisingly nimble and cognizant for his age, but he is an outlier. We keep hearing from young voters that they want younger candidates to lead the next generation. If any of the aforementioned vice presidential candidates went on to win the presidency in 2028, their ages on inauguration day would be:
- Tim Scott: 63
- Ron DeSantis: 50
- Tulsi Gabbard: 47
- Sarah Huckabee: 46
- J.D. Vance: 44
With the exception of Scott, our candidate would be the youngest Republican incumbent since Theodore Roosevelt and would rank among the ten youngest presidents in American history. That’s something to think about, especially considering the fact that the Left probably won’t make the same mistake of reanimating another cadaver to fall down stairs and walk into walls. Rest assured, once Biden realizes that he long ago died, the Joker-grinned Newsom or some other such Manchurian candidate will slither his way onto the national stage to claim the throne.
The aforementioned candidates are young but experienced, loyal but independent, have incredible stories and crossover appeal, and could carry both our party and our country through the next twelve years. If Trump truly cares about the future of this great nation, he’ll base his VP pick not on their willingness to publicly eat crumbs from the top of his shoe, but on their potential to use these next four years to develop and grow into the presidential role. It might not placate the all-caps only-Trump devotees, but it could expand the base to earn on election day what we haven’t earned in twenty years: an actual majority.