Is Donald Trump the new Jimmy Stewart?
In the wake of the latest battle between the Outsider former President Donald Trump and the corrupt Insider Washington political Establishment, the thought occurs to recall the 1939 movie classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, starring Jimmy Stewart.
For those who came in late, Stewart portrays an innocent Outsider — Jefferson Smith, the head of a Boy Scout–type group known as the Boy Rangers. Picked out of the blue by the governor of his state to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate, solving a political problem for the governor being forced to choose between candidates from two different factions of his party, the decidedly Washington-innocent Outsider Smith arrives in the Swamp that is Washington in 1939 as much as in current day 2023. (READ MORE from Jeffrey Lord: GOP Senate Gone Shamefully Silent on Trump)
He gets the appointment after, unknown to him, Boss Jim Taylor, the all-powerful boss who controls the state’s political machine, says this to the machine-controlled governor who will appoint Smith:
The man who goes to the Senate can’t ask any questions or talk out of turn.
Wikipedia describes the plot essence of what follows:
Smith comes up with a bill to authorize a federal government loan to buy some land in his home state for a national boys’ camp, to be paid back by youngsters across America. Donations pour in immediately. However, the proposed campsite is already part of a dam-building graft scheme included in an appropriations bill framed by the Taylor political machine and supported by [Smith’s colleague from his state, the Taylor machine’s] Senator Paine.
Unwilling to crucify the worshipful Smith so that their graft plan will go through, Paine tells [the state’s political boss Jim] Taylor he wants out, but Taylor reminds him that Paine is in power primarily through Taylor’s influence. Paine then advises Smith to keep silent about the matter. The following day, when Smith speaks out about the bill at Senate, the machine in his state—through Paine—accuses Smith of trying to profit from his bill by producing fraudulent evidence that Smith already owns the land in question.
As a consequence, the corrupt political machine that opposes Smith frames him, launching a Taylor machine–led effort to portray Smith as the crook and expel him from the Senate.
Smith’s ability to get his message out through the media of the day is stopped — because the media in the state is corrupt, part of the Taylor machine. One of his few allies says, alarmed:
Not one word of what he’s saying is being printed in that state! Taylor has every paper lined up, and he’s feeding them doctored-up junk!
Another asks:
“One man muzzling a whole state?”
“And how!”
Sound familiar? With various networks and staff demanding Trump be silenced?
Wikipedia continues to say this of the plot:
The constituents try to rally around him, but the entrenched opposition is too powerful, and all attempts are crushed. Owing to the influence of Taylor’s machine, newspapers and radio stations in Smith’s home state, on Taylor’s orders, refuse to report what Smith has to say and even distort the facts against the senator. The Boy Rangers’ effort to spread the news in support of Smith results in vicious attacks on the children by Taylor’s minions.
The spoiler alert is that the corrupt Senator Paine finally confesses that Jefferson Smith has been framed, and it is he, Senator Paine, and the corrupt Taylor machine who are the real villains. Smith emerges as the real hero, tried and true to honor and integrity.
Make no mistake.
Joe Biden is using his corrupt Department of Justice, in Taylor-machine style, to interfere in the 2024 election — by silencing former President Donald Trump. Trump very likely again will be the GOP nominee. And the Establishment media, just as in Mr. Smith, goes along.
As noted in this space earlier:
No less than the Wall Street Journal, no fan of the former president, correctly warns that:
“[H]is indictment by President Biden’s Justice Department is a fraught moment for American democracy. For the first time in U.S. history, the prosecutorial power of the federal government has been used against a former President who is also running against the sitting President….
Special counsel Jack Smith announced the indictment in a brief statement on Friday. But no one should be fooled: This is Attorney General Merrick Garland’s responsibility. Mr. Garland appointed Mr. Smith to provide political cover, but Mr. Garland, who reports to Mr. Biden, has the authority to overrule a special counsel’s recommendation. Americans will inevitably see this as a Garland-Biden indictment, and they are right to think so.”
Exactly.
Also over there at the anti-Trump Wall Street Journal was this column by the WSJ’s longtime and astute observer Holman Jenkins:
The Establishment vs. Trump
That is an exact description of Trump’s foes (I would add the word “corrupt” before the word “Establishment”) and the American people, no dummies, get it.
Alas, the same cannot be said for most of Trump’s opposition in the GOP presidential primaries. From New Jersey’s Chris Christie to Arkansas’ Asa Hutchinson to the latest entry, the Never-Trump former Texas Rep. Will Hurd — and others in the field — it can be safely said that they just don’t get it.
So too does this apply to others, such as former Attorney General William Barr, former White House chief of staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, former Trump staffer and current co-host of The View Alyssa Farah Griffin, and a long list of others.
Doubtless unwittingly, Griffin supplied exactly the mindset of the D.C. Establishment toward the Outsider president when she said of Trump: “Oh, this is not a fixable individual.”
Translation? The Outsider president would not bend the knee to the corrupt Washington Establishment that runs the Swamp and its decidedly corrupt way of doing business. Thus, he has to be dealt with. Fixed.
This is exactly the plot of that now-84-year-old Jimmy Stewart movie classic, in which the Outsider Sen. Jefferson Smith refuses to bend the knee to the corrupt Establishment Taylor machine — thereby making him a target for destruction.
Like the fictional Taylor machine and its bought-and-paid-for Senator Paine in Mr. Smith, these Trump critics are nothing more than Establishment vessels who have sold out to the corrupt Washington political Establishment.
And millions of Americans get it.
Over there at Newsmax (where, full disclosure, I am a contributor) was this headline from a talk with Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn:
Sen. Blackburn to Newsmax: Americans See ‘Two Tiers of Justice’
Reported Newsmax:
People want everyone to have “equal access, equal opportunity, and equal justice under the law,” but that isn’t happening with federal agencies showing one approach to “the elites” and another to conservatives, Sen. Marsha Blackburn said Thursday on Newsmax.
“Two tiers of justice, that is what Tennesseans are saying,” the Tennessee Republican said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “I’m hearing it every single day, whether it’s the DOJ, the FBI, the IRS, the EPA, OSHA, or any of the other agencies, they feel as if there is one approach that is shown to the elites to the Bidens, the Clintons, and their cronies.”
Blackburn added: “There is another that is shown to conservatives and other individuals who are not part of the privileged or the elite, and people are really frustrated with this. … They want our country to be a nation known for abiding by the rule of law.”
Rocket back in time over a full eight decades to Jimmy Stewart’s onscreen turn in Mr. Smith, and that is exactly the point that was made by the Outsider Jefferson Smith.
And it is exactly the point made today by Outsider Donald Trump. Who, just as was true of Stewart’s character, is a target for a corrupted machine.
Donald Trump is the new Jimmy Stewart.
Who knew?
Millions of Americans.
Which is exactly why the more targeted he becomes, the higher his polls.
