Whether you have a MAGA sticker on your bumper or a for sale sign on your Tesla is irrelevant at this point. Americans are pot committed to the 2024 election results and will walk through the trials and tribulations of the next four years together, for better or worse. History shows us the decisions made inside the Oval Office have bipartisan effects, especially the bad economic ones.
The campaign trail has traditionally been a great place for a candidate to play “hide and seek” with the facts. If the applause line gets a loud enough response, nobody seems to ask any of the tough follow-up questions, like how the war in Ukraine is going to end in 24 hours or why would people want to pay off their neighbors’ student loans. But the rubber meets the road once a candidate is sworn in. In describing the realities of the job, former President George W. Bush put it this way: “The reason the Oval Office is round is there are no corners you can hide in.”
This architectural reality usually lends itself to an incoming president making a few edits and tweaks to their campaign’s euphoric promises, much to the chagrin of their most ardent supporters. They reset the imbalance between their campaign rhetoric and what is best for our country, despite the short-term political heartburn.
Not this time.
President Donald Trump’s unwillingness to eat crow on several of his populist campaign promises is causing stock and bond markets to crumble and industries to be stressed to the point of extinction. Since Trump’s inauguration, $9.6 trillion (and counting) worth of hardworking Americans’ money earmarked for retirement, college tuition or many other reasons has been lit on fire by what is starting to feel like an economic arsonist. The head-scratcher is nobody outside the West Wing can point to any fruitful reason or goal for Trump’s destructive actions, other than his ego.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the foolish nature of Trump’s whack-a-mole tariff strategy, or does it? Last week, quasi rocket scientist and Space X CEO Elon Musk took to his favorite social media platform, X, to express his grievances with one of Trump’s top tariff advisers, Peter Navarro. Musk did not hold back, referring to his political teammate as “truly a moron” and added “Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks.”
Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on much these days, but they do on the damaging economic effects of Trump’s irrational tariffs. In a Reuters/Ipsos poll released last week, 73% of Americans expect prices to rise under Trump’s tariff plan. There is a growing sense that the chaotic tariff situation might only be the tip of the economic iceberg. JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon warned Friday that the economy faces “considerable turbulence” and further went on to say “we continue to believe it is prudent to maintain excess capital and ample liquidity in this environment.” Even Trump himself used some dark economic calculus as a reason to temporarily back off the reciprocal tariffs at the last minute. As reported last week by the Wall Street Journal, Trump privately acknowledged that his trade policy could trigger a recession but said he wanted to be sure it didn’t cause a depression, according to people familiar with the conversations.
It should scare everyone that one person has quickly consolidated enough power within the confines of our democracy to sink our country into a 1930s-style depression with one “fly by the seat of his pants” decision.
So now what? What are hardworking Georgians going to do over the next few years to not become victims of gravity to the disastrous series of decisions being made in Washington, D.C. We apply our state’s motto, Wisdom Justice Moderation, to the 2026 election cycle where Georgians will select a new governor and a slate full of statewide elected officials.
If we don’t want to look, taste or smell like disastrous D.C., then Georgians must ask the uncomfortable follow-up questions when a candidate’s rhetoric is out of touch with our state’s reality. On one hand, some candidates are going to start showing up in your hometown trumpeting out-of-touch far left ideology that serve as solutions in search of a problem. On the flip side, others are going to show up offering their unwavering fealty to Trump and his destructive and divisive MAGA brand.
My hope is you show both the door and lock it behind them.
Georgia is going to have some big shoes to fill in 2026. Notice I didn’t say clown shoes.
Credit: Geoff Duncan
Credit: Geoff Duncan
Geoff Duncan, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributing columnist, served as Georgia’s lieutenant governor from 2019 to 2023. He is a former professional baseball player and the author of “GOP 2.0: How the 2020 Election Can Lead to a Better Way Forward for America’s Conservative Party.” He is also a contributor to CNN.
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