The Presidential Race — 2024

 

I am not a Republican.  I am not a Democrat.  I am a Libertarian.  In fact, I am a radical Rothbardian Libertarian.

Given that, I now propose a radical suggestion for winning the 2024 Presidential race.  For the Republicans.

Donald Trump cannot do for the GOP what he did in 2016.  He is 'old news'.  If he runs for President, although he has an elevated chance of winning, he has no chance of doing good things for the Republican Party as a whole.  But there is a slate that would radically transform the political landscape forever, and in a positive way.

If Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida can be cajoled into abandoning Florida for national office, he could not possibly choose a better running mate than Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI).

"OMG!" someone just gasped, "what kind of moron would suggest a Democratic Vice-President for a Republican President?"

That person does not know that in the early days of this nation, the candidate with the most electoral votes was declared 'President', and the runner-up was declared 'Vice-President', and their party was not considered.  It is a fairly recent modification that a 'slate' of President+Vice-President ran conjoined, and electors were pledged not to a candidate, but to a pair of candidates.

I have seen Ron DeSantis at work, and I approve his methods.  There is no one else within the GOP whose evident philosophy I approve more than the erstwhile Democratic Congresswoman from Hawai'i.  Were a DeSantis-Gabbard team sent to Washington, there could not rise against them any plausible opposition.  The GOP certainly would not.  The Democrats' only ploy would be to eject Gabbard from their party, cutting off their collectivist noses to spite their collectivist faces.

Pass the popcorn.

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Update (10-11-2022):  Aw, crap!  Tulsi Gabbard today announced that she is leaving the Democratic Party because of their abandonment of all the principles (!) that she thought they were committed to.  So, there goes DeSantis' chance to make history.  If he gets the GOP nomination in 2024, it would still be a good idea to tag Tulsi as VP.

Career Reflections

 

It was 50 years ago today, November 1st, 1971, that IBM began paying me to write programs.  I often call that one of the smartest business decisions I ever made — transferring from accounting to systems.

I only worked for IBM's Field Engineering Information Systems (FEIS) unit for another almost-eight years, before leaving to do contract programming at IT&T and American Can Co., leading to a permanent job with Aramco in Houston, Texas in August of 1981.  By 1984, due to Aramco deciding to Saudi-ize the workforce, I reconnected with IBM and moved to Florida's Suncoast.  Gruesome details on that journey, should you wish to revisit them, can be found on this blog at Life after IBM and Dave Boyd and the STSS.

It has been, all things considered, a very pleasant, productive, and profitable 50 years, and I'm still glad I did it.