Brains will continue to spin as this election cycle makes history, taking the extremes of past elections, political conventions, media hype, and truth-twisting to new heights – the first time a candidate with all the delegates quits, the first time a candidate is arrested, prosecuted, convicted, nearly assassinated, yet stronger, and first time for … what next?
That is the pivotal question, what next? In military intelligence, we often “red-teamed” possible futures, meaning we try to think about the range of things we should be prepared to confront, from likely to less likely, and have a plan. This is how the GOP should be thinking now.
What could happen?
First, any number of political combinations could materialize from the fractured, confused, dissembling, and – yes – “caught red-handed” Democrat leadership. The GOP could face Harris and a cast of thousands, or a fresh ticket entirely.
Second, they could have their scheduled “virtual convention” on August 7th, which would amount to the first round, maybe second or more round of voting – a sleight-of-hand originally intended to lock Biden-Harris in before the floor convention on August 19-20, or they could bag that trick, cancel it.
Third, they could try to preserve more than 200 million in donor money, spur fresh donor money, by nominating Harris, then open the floor – virtual or actual – to some kind of beauty contest for the VP slot, in effect making clear that Harris is not in charge, the big donors are.
Alternately, they could invite March Madness in August, and just open the entire convention floor to opportunities to showcase all options, go to dozens of ballots if necessary to distill a new presidential candidate, or new vice president, and then transfer much of their “Biden-Harris” money to one or more political action committees, which would then support the new ticket.
Fourth, time is now of the essence. What is usually a year-and-a-half process, allowing a good look at all options, has now been telescoped for Democrats – and for Republicans who must pivot, vet, and beat the new ticket – down to about two months, since the selection process will take one.
Fifth, the whole election dynamic will now take on a strange two-track quality, with Democrats scrambling to catch up to Trump, especially after the assassination attempt, vilify him while not pushing violence; at the same time, they must introduce, showcase, and promote a new team.
Sixth, the Biden team is now internally in disarray, with many preparing to bail, seek new jobs before peers, others likely to cling to Harris and some new running mate, and others picking another horse.
Perhaps most interestingly the entire Biden defender class – Democrats who knew the truth and told a different story about this ailing president – has been outed as deceivers, whatever they say.
This will have the tendency to create cynics of many Independent and Democrat donors and voters, further imperiling Democrat candidates, up and down the ticket, from federal to local contenders.
Widening the camera aperture, or zooming out, the international environment may become suddenly more volatile, if that is possible. Having opened up huge security gaps, and produced inconceivable failures in Afghanistan, Ukraine, the Middle East, and on the US border, things could potentially grow more uneasy, for example, if China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, or non-state actors think this is their chance to destabilize their corner of the world or ours.
All of this means, to borrow again on military thinking, the GOP needs to be thinking ahead, working through continencies – likely to unlikely – and putting plans in place to flex with them.
Going back to Roman politics, first century AD, specifically to Pliny the Elder, we are reminded that, as he laconically put it: “In these matters, the only certainty is that nothing is certain.”
That is why, using the wildest imaginations, best contingency planning, and strongest “red teaming,” the GOP should be ready, put all possibilities on paper, and take nothing for granted. The Boy Scouts used it first, but the best motto for the GOP is this brain-spinning cycle: Be Prepared.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
Excellent article RBC and very timely as well, as most articles here seem to be focused on backward looking things that have already occurred. “Red-teaming” is also used in the business world, especially finance and planning, as well as the military to map out various gaming scenarios to anticipate potential issues before they occur and then have an effective countermeasure already developed to neutralize the issue, if it pops up.
We cannot simply assume the Democrats are going to suddenly decide to play fair and shutdown their various ballot manipulation efforts that are already in progress across the country. Why would they? It has been an effective strategy since 2020. Everything from the executive order Biden signed earlier this year to every federal department and agency to ramp up voter registration, meaning only Democrat voter registration of course, to various states, mostly Democrat run ones, allowing illegals to vote in supposedly just local elections (most states don’t maintain any special designation on their voter rolls once someone is registered to vote, so these folks will be voting at the national level as well), are all part of the much larger effort to ensure Democrat “wins” by any means necessary.
If anything, the GOP leadership should have already gamed out a full set of contingency plans to counter most, if not all, the most likely scenarios long before now. If they haven’t, we’re already behind the curve and need to significantly step-up our efforts ASAP. Again, excellent article that hopefully inspires people to look at the chess board differently.
We All Need:
To Vote-Go “Trump”” !!!
You will able to knock me over with a feather if she wins! I will be shocked that this country is so stupid. GOD help us!!!!!
RBC, lots of possibilities can happen as you have stated with the upcoming election, but the Adversary will continue to use all deception and misdirection tactics in their strategy to retain power. There is a lot of “RED-TEAMING” to do and a particular situation can happen at any time. Have to be proactive at all times and be ready for an instant response when a surprise occurs.
Here is my (quite humble) assessment of what is happening. Joe Biden did not decide to step down. The democrat deep state operatives failed in their attempt to eliminate the competition. Since that failed and they know there isn’t a snowballs chance Biden can beat Trump, they then gave Biden a two option scenario. 1 Biden agrees to step aside or 2 Democrats vote another candidate in at the convention.Joe was forced to accept the former. Now we are told that Now if anyone thinks they are going to shove Biden out of the window and replace him with Kamala, who has an even smaller snowballs chance they are delusional.I think the “support’ for Kamala is merely a distraction to buy them time to persuade another person to take up the cause. Since democrats have backed themselves into a tight corner with identity politics, the options are very limited. Two criteria must be met or the party will split like a nut in a nutcracker. 1 The perfect candidate MUST be a woman and 2 She damn well better be black. There is only one person who can meet these qualifications to a T and that is (drum roll please) Michelle Obama. Barack has not given the nod to Kamala and there is a reason for that.
This shouldn’t be a hard decision. We have had 4 years of Trump and 4 years of Biden, Harris. Do you want more of what Biden, Harris will offer or more of what Trump offers. Trump has 4 years of experience and he should be more effective next time in doing more good things to make America a better stronger country. It shouldn’t be a hard decision in deciding for whom to vote.
41 of 47 staffers quit… always unprepared and to difficult to deal with. I’m not surprised nor how she got this far in the first place.Thanks for nothing Willie Brown!
Be prepared indeed. These slick dem machine operators will surprise us one more time. What that is nobody can predict. Everything the dems do we can’t even imagine because their thinking is so scrambled. Like Kameltoe’s brain. From the fake pandemic mandates till the disasterly withdrawal from Afghanistan. To the millions of illegals, criminals, pedophiles and drug dealers and those that will do us harm that have come across the border. The pro Hamas demonstrators to arresting our own citizens for just being in Washington DC on Jan 6-2021. The inflation and stopping drilling for oil all in the name of climate change. Hoe is that working out? We have been prepared and are vigilant whatever comes down the pike in the coming days. The people know what kind of president we have and what Kameltoe would do to America. Just call her out what she has done for America and she is toast.
One more thing they should be prepared for, I think, is voter apathy. The GOP must excite people, all eligible voters, to come out and vote. We know that the Democrats are good at this, using racial, gender and other attributes that have nothing to do with governing in America. The GOP has to find a way to get exuberant, and even lackadaisical, supporters to vote the real issues.
Joe and Kamala have same agenda.Power, lime light, thought I expect that was more of Jills idea,, money and more money. Greed and lies are their forta. Stir up trouble amongst the races and start civil wars
Y
The crats are getting a “sugar high” with Harris. This is ONLY temporary and will fade. They still have nothing new to offer so she will be running on Biden’s ruinous policies. Keep in mind that the Trump team hasn’t run ONE TV commercial.
RBC, your strategic planning article is on point. Unfortunately the Republican Party, which is infiltrated by RINOs, is reactive instead of proactive. They take the “high road” instead of employing the long-term formulated tactics that liberals use. They fail to fight fire with fire until it’s too late. Finally, the Democrats are very good at uniting, in spite of internal differences, to accomplish their goals. To the contrary, the Republicans are guilty of publicly shaming one another and compromising with the other side in order to secure their political careers. For this reason I left the Republican Party and went unaffiliated while still supporting DJT and the MAGA movement.
The real problem is that the Democrats will simply deny or downplay their sins, the media will back them up, and the dim witted sheep will gobble it up, swear to it, and vote D. Not to mention all the dead and inferm voters.
Based on previous Democrat events, if you’re a Democrat, shut up, get in line, and support Kamala. It doesn’t matter what you think or who you’d rather support.
Excellent! We need to be prepared for the deep state attacks that will continue in fervency come November. In 2016 they knew they had the election in the bag. That is why Hillary could not believe the numbers. They had the computers and the ballots fixed, but Trump broke the count by going over their expectation. So, they were even more ready in 2020 with more bogus ballots and county election fixing. They packed the counties with Soros’ surrogate legal officials. Since it has not changed that much in the last 4 years, you can expect the same steal. How do you prepare considering this is going to happen again?
One, GOP needs eyes on the Ballot Boxes and Voting Centers
Two, they need to be monitoring and tracking the Wifi and ethernet coming in and out of the centers or block the signals.
Three, a plan must be in place for either a win or loss. (The Dems have both.) If you win, what is the next thing to do to stop the Deep States plan to sabotage everything Trump does? If you lose, what is the plan to validate that the election was stolen and to get around Soros’ legal system?
Four, The election was stolen again and the Soros legal system wins again. Then What?
Five, Consider that you have won, but that they have driven the economy into the dust and broken the backs of all Americans. There is no stock market, housing market, job market, the dollar has been replaced by the Yuan or some digital currency. How do you restart the economy? Many are saying that the banks will not make it until November.
Our forefathers had a way to pull the patriots together against the entrenched domestic enemy, the British. The had leadership in place and a plan. We have neither today. How can this be done?
This is a wake up call for the GOP.
Gear Up RNC GOP Be PROACTIVE, radical & strike when needed Hardball time
Trump 2024
Troll has arrived early.
Damnocraps immediately began their attack by spooling out Vance’s 2022 comments in VICE stating he thought women should stay in violent/abusive marriages. I’m already hearing from both men and women who supported Trump that they now refuse to vote for Trump since he has taken Vance for a VP…because of those comments.
Never under estimate stupidity … I have heard my neighbors & co-workers say “no one is going to tell me what I can do with MY BODY ” That is the power of the fake news . When I try to explain , I get attacked . Typical of that mind set . Don’t discuss , attack . So , I still try ,.We also have a local news program , that I go on when I can to give my opinion . I also try to write letters to the editor of newspapers , hoping I can get a common sense point to the nuts. I also pray daily for President Trump & the hope of taking the Senate & House … Doing what I can makes me feel I am helping in a small way .
The real and most influential corrupt beast in this election is the msm. I can already see them building the cackling queen up to a higher throne. Making her look like the exact opposite of what she really is. And the brainwashing of the vulnerable, naive, and ignorant public continues.
i take Slick and Slithary’s support of Kamela as a gambit. She still wants to be pres so bad she can’t see strait. the set up will be Slithary will be nominated from the floor by a 25 or so strong group. She will then get to be noble and claim to be enjoying retirement, “but if the people draft me, I will run for the good of the country.” Michael (Michele) will be her vp. Slithary’s nobility will be the theme of the campaign. those two have enough deranged supporters to be hard to beat.
Can I hear an Amen!
Kamala Harris has already garnered enough delegate support to win the nomination. She and her campaign has already come out swinging, with some of the most audacious lies and innuendos to date against Trump. At this point, they seem to be going after Trump personally. Trump would do well to not answer fire with fire and be drawn into a personality free-for-all attack, such as happens in the WBE, but stick to the issues and attack Harris’s record, as the VP, as Senator, and as prosecutor. There’s plenty of fodder there to keep before the voters.
The LEFT RADICAL DEM party is the worst ever political party In history if beloved country POOR LEADERSHIP BAD .DECISIONS For 3 YEARS The election is a joke. Our Democracy is BROKEN These folks need to DISAPPEAR and ĺgo to JAIL!!!!!!
KAMALA FOR PRESIDENT???
How many votes did Kamala Cackle de Cack get in the primaries when she ran for President the last time? Well, she better hope she does better this time, or it’ll be a landslide win for the Republicans and President Trump. GOOD GRIEF: I’m leaving my man cave for good if Kamala Cackle de Cack wins. (maybe I should lock myself in instead) Yeah, that’s what I’ll do; I’ll lock myself in my man cave for four years. It’s my sanctuary, after all.
This should not be a surprise to GOP as has been lurking for quite awhile. Democrats keep tossing curve balls since the mid=term election& many in GOP keep falling into the trap. The GOP has to get serious if they really want to unify this country or not, as their actions do not support unification. And stop with calling your own people RINO’s as that is not helping GOP.
CNN cammentators lauding Biden claiming “history will reveal the greatness of his administration” after his Maxx Headroom taped speech today. Okay, so why isn’t he still running? Oh,nI know… you can’t have too much of a good thing, right!? This is what we’re up against folks!
Dems are still vilifying Trump. Rep. Nadler, in a hearing today, practically blamed Trump for his attempted assassination by saying he created the violence with his rhetoric. No pushback on those vile comments.
Mr. Charles: Would you consider doing a piece about Project 2025? I just read all on their website (except the 922 page book, which is free to download), and it is quite intriguing and gives me hope for the change in the federal government that would return it to the people.
There will be no Presidential election this year. GOD has said so!!!!