Nov 22, 2024 By Dave Ball 5 min read

I wrote in an Oct. 27 op-ed that “the Democratic Party is in the process of imploding with the likelihood of fading into even greater irrelevance than it currently enjoys.”

The op-ed continued, “The Democratic Party is circling the drain.”

The election is over, mostly, and indeed the Democrats were dealt a brutal repudiation by the voters of this country who were simply fed up with mindless and ineffective identity politics, the use of retributive lawfare, inflation, loss of purchasing power and unconscionable disregard for the rule of law, particularly at the southern border.

Democrats, since the election, have blamed everyone and everything for their loss but themselves and their failed policies.

In the Nov. 5 election, Donald Trump received 76 million votes and 312 Electoral College votes to Harris’s 74 million votes and 226 Electoral College votes. Trump won 30 states to 18 for Harris, with two split states. Trump won all the toss-up states. The vaunted “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin vaporized. The Republicans won both the House and the Senate. By any measure, that is total repudiation. Another description is “mandate for change.”

Immediately following the election, the inevitable calls from Democrats and wobbly Republicans to “reach out to the Democrats,” “work in a bipartisan manner” and become “unified.” Right, just like the Democrats sought to work with Republicans in 2020, or how Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been talking about a scorched-earth, last-ditch push to jam his ultra-liberal agenda through the Senate. Or, maybe the way Democrats are talking about setting up a “shadow government” to oppose and obstruct President Trump’s agenda. To quote General Anthony McAuliffe’s famous response to the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge, “Nuts.”

When President Trump was first elected in 2016, he made a major mistake in being too accommodating. He made Cabinet selections and picked advisors that represented the Establishment, the professional grifters of politics. He did not completely dismantle the entrenched Democratic administrative behemoth. History clearly demonstrates that this “deep state” actively worked against him during his entire tenure and is still doing so. He will not make that mistake this time around.

Within a week of his election, Trump has named a dozen key people to his Cabinet plus a number of others to key agency positions. His picks are younger, loyal and D.C. outsiders. The left is losing its collective mind. The handwriting is on the wall; there is a new sheriff in town and things will change “bigly.” Trump is likely to begin deep change by replacing the top couple management layers of corrupt major agencies like the FBI, CIA and Department of Justice (DOJ). He will then require the new administrative teams to finish the housecleaning. Could thousands of D.C. swamp critters find themselves displaced? Let us hope so.

Already the cries of “retribution” are being heard from those likely to soon be unemployed. Not true. Retribution is when one is attacked for personal reasons, like the Democrats did to Trump, Michael Flynn and Rudy Giuliani with the Steele Dossier, two baseless impeachment efforts, armed attacks by process servers, relentless lawfare, the ravage of Mar-a-Lago and other actions. What hopefully occurs will be the long overdue institutional housecleaning necessitated by many years of bureaucratic bloat and entitled disregard of the law and the Constitution. It will be interesting to see how many criminal referrals result from subpoena-based committee investigations of apparent illegal actions of the FBI, CIA, DOJ and others.

While the aforementioned removal of obstructive elements is necessary to move on, the president-elect is not forgetting that the primary purpose of government is to serve the people. He is appointing people to positions who will make major substantive changes. He has a vision and a plan.

Appointing Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk to a newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is brilliant. Musk says he can see savings of two trillion dollars. Certainly possible.

Marco Rubio will be a great secretary of state as he shares President Trump’s view that to achieve peace, one must prepare for war.

The Biden administration has put the United States in a precarious and weakened position on the world stage. We must confront Russia, China, Iran and North Korea from a position of strength. Pete Hegseth is the ideal person to revive our military as secretary of defense by scrapping the diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense and focusing on the ability to fight wars.

Tom Homan is exactly what we need as border czar. Homan will dismantle the current policies and practices that have allowed our country to be overrun by illegal immigration. Homan is committed to the rule of law and the sanctity of our nation’s borders.

There are many other great picks for top positions and Susie Wilde will help orchestrate the process as chief of staff.

It is now up to the Republicans in the Senate to stand behind President Trump; to put away the petty infighting and posturing and to quickly confirm his nominations. Many things are changing already. Imagine what change will look like after January 20th.

The gurgle you hear is the Democratic Party disappearing down the drain.

Dave Ball is the former chairman of the Washington County Republican Party.