October 8, 2025
IT WILL BE VANCE VERSUS NEWSOM IN 2028 PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST
The good news for Democrats is that there are only about 1,200 days left of the Trump-Vance administration.
The bad news for Republicans is that there are only 1,200 days left of the Trump-Vance administration.
The reality is that all the bad/good that Trump has/will do through Jan. 20, 2029 can/will be undone if a Democrat wins in 2028.
I’ve been writing this political column since 1973 and never witnessed a U.S. political environment so saturated with hatred, vulgarity, venom, invective and vilification.
Rational political discourse is impossible and elections are borderline irrelevant. I mean, why even write about politics and elections when so many of those on the Left despise and revile America and the system?
Sometime during the remainder of Trump’s term, I have a feeling something very serious is going to happen and the hatred and chaos will explode exponentially.
Mayor Brandon Johnson said recently that the radical Right in America has not accepted the results of the Civil War (1861-65) and that “they want a rematch.” He kind of alluded to the idea that the White southern slave-holding aristocracy is lurking in the guise of Trump and the Republicans and that they are still in charge.
Even considering the source, language like that is sheer idiocy. And let’s not forget that it was the southern White Democrats who created slavery as a “peculiar institution” and the northern White Republicans who fought to abolish it.
Under Biden-Harris dysfunction was also the norm. Everybody who criticized them were either ignored by the complicit news media or castigated and dismissed as “racists” and “fascists.”
What we now have is half the country expecting Armageddon. The end of times, or so says the media. An example is the “Schumer Shutdown,” meaning the Democrats’ refusal to approve the Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund government operations for 7 weeks. And it shut down. And nothing happened, although government pay has been delayed for many.
It is all about scoring talking points. And we wonder why people are so disgusted by our politicians.
And we wonder why the anti-Trump Left is not going to wait until 2026 to oust the Republicans and put Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries in power. Nothing will change.
The Left has lost political power. The Left’s media influence is diminishing. All the Left has left is the judiciary – and the street.
What is happening on the streets of Portland, Memphis and Chicago is not going to be forgotten by both sides.
For the Left, this is Stage One in order to disrupt, destabilize, and destroy. John Kass wrote a great column about the enduring impact of radical Chicago organizer Saul Alinsky, who wrote a long-ago book entitled “Rules for Radicals.”
Among his “rules” was the concept that “power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.” This cuts both ways.
The Left’s paranoid perception is that Trump is some pernicious authoritarian dictator, to which they must respond by creating anarchy and destabilization in various U.S. cities. The Right’s response is to combat disorder with law-and-order, which escalates the situation and ideologically polarizes everything. And it looks like war is being waged on the streets. For the Left, it’s by the government. For the Right, it’s from “anarchists.”
That works when the political establishment (meaning Trump at this moment) is spineless and fears losing power if it does not capitulate. But there’s no need to capitulate. The Trump Nation knows he will NEVER capitulate.
The doom-and-gloom voices on the Left are not directed at the Trump Nation. It ignores them. Instead they’re trying to reassure their base that they’re not delusional and that “evil” can and will be vanquished – in 2026, 2028…or, whenever.
Another Alinsky tenet is that a “tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” How much longer are we going to hear that Trump is a dictator? That democracy is at risk? That the “Gestapo” is here?
The skirmishes in Broadview don’t look good for either side. Videos of people getting pummeled to the ground by the feds are numerous. Videos of screaming people chucking rocks and bottles at federal agents are endless too. Who is right and who is wrong?
You mean to tell me there is no amicable solution so that the protests remain peaceful and the federal agents do not have to go after every single person who is Brown in Chicago? There is, but that would mean elected leaders would have to talk together to come up with solutions FROM BOTH SIDES.
America is at a breaking point. The divisiveness and hostility has become unhealable and insoluble. ICE is spraying tear gas at everyone and protesters are “peaceful.” Don’t believe that crap. Some people presume that those who are wreaking havoc are paid saboteurs – not “peaceful protesters” – on our streets. I hate to keep sounding like a fortune-teller but something bad is going to happen.
On the bright side, Kamala Harris’s “107 Days” book validates Americans’ wisdom in rejecting her for president. She says she had no idea how unpopular Joe Biden was. How can anybody be that unperceptive? Biden’s job approval was under 40 percent. And on her book tour she claims the 2024 election, which she lost by 1.5 million votes, was the “closest” in this century.
Harris forgets 2000 when VP Al Gore (D) actually won the popular vote over Bush II but lost Florida (and the presidency) by 527 votes. Or 2016 when Hillary Clinton (D) won the popular vote over Trump but still lost. This is abject narcissism run amok. Harris in her book says she could not choose a White gay man (Buttigieg) as her 2024 VP because America wouldn’t “accept” (her words) a ticket with a Black/Asian Indian woman married to a Jewish man and a gay White guy with a Black husband. Really? Harris’s whole world is Identity Politics. She spent $1.5 billion on her run. She picked a total Clown as her VP.
The 2028 Democratic nominee will be the best Trump-trasher. And right now that is Gavin Newsom, the slick, CA governor. He is positioning himself as the most vitriolic Trump-hater. Pete Buttigieg (of South Bend, IN) is polling around 10 percent. Democrats in 2028 want a winner.
They don’t want a symbol, like NYC congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who also polls around ten percent. But she is a certain loser against Vance. But there will be FATIGUE by 2028.
I am a lifelong political junkie but I am so tired of this ongoing crap. Whoever is the least-fatiguing side will win in 2028. Or whoever is the least annoying.
As depicted in the attached chart the 2028 field is already crystallizing and several things are becoming clear. First, we all know Trump can’t run again but that the election will nevertheless be a referendum on him and his record. Second, we all know it is a near-certainty that vice-president J.D. Vance will be the Republican nominee and carrier of Trump’s legacy. Third, we all know Kamala Harris is not going to be the Democrats’ 2028 nominee. End of story.
Read more Analysis & Opinion from Russ Stewart at Russstewart.com
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