I didn’t realize that Hulk Hogan had launched into a second career as a political prognosticator, but we can suppose his estimations are as good as anyone else’s at this point – although you’ll forgive me if I place more stock in someone like, say, Dr. Victor Davis Hanson. But The Hulkster has his opinion as to how the 2024 presidential election is going to end up, and he’s predicting a Trump landslide.
The wrestling icon made a major splash when he spoke at the Republican National Convention, in which he endorsed the former president to “let Trumpamania run again.” Since then, Hogan, whose real name is Terry Bollea, has been traveling across the country to promote his new beer brand, and has discovered through his travels that “everybody’s for Trump.”
“So I hear what you’re saying about the polls, and it’s even-Steven, and it might be a close call, but let me tell you something, I don’t believe the polls,” Hogan said on Fox News’s One Nation with Brian Kilmeade. “It’s going to be a landslide. Too big to rig, brother, is the theme here, and at the end of the day, all of America wants to get back to America. Not the way it used to be, but the way it should be, brother.”
Well, there’s just one thing wrong with that argument: not all of America wants to “get back” to America. The wealthy coastal elites, the ivory-tower academics, the government employees unions, the dependency classes – they would prefer not to go back to an America that was a paragon of individual liberty and personal achievement. But I think Hogan has a point; plenty of us would like to “get back to America,” even if it’s just an America of four years ago.
I wouldn’t mind $2 for a gallon of gasoline again, either.
Hogan also addressed Trump’s appearance at the Al Smith dinner, which he praised for Trump’s various jokes, including one aimed at “white dudes for Harris.” In addition to Trump’s comedic ability, Hogan also spoke highly of Trump’s business experience, and claimed “that’s what this country needs.”
“We want God in our homes, and in our schools, and in our country,” Hogan said. “We basically want safety, we want, basically, to have great lives, and we want to be able to economically afford to live a good life and take care of our children. Trump is all about that. Everything I hear on the other side is supposed to be hope and happy, it all sounds like doom and gloom to me.”
Personally, I want to be left alone to live my life as I see fit. But I think there’s room for that in the America the Hulkster is describing. And it’s looking more and more all the time that whatever America we end up with, it will have, for the next four years, Donald Trump seated at the Resolute Desk. And who knows, if things go well, we’ll have a President Vance after that – and maybe a President DeSantis later on. OK, I may be leaning a little too far forward in the foxhole here, but the world’s got no shortage of windmills to tilt at.
Hogan doesn’t describe precisely how he defines “landslide.” I think a Trump win with over 300 Electoral College votes is very plausible, and that’s probably in “mandate” territory, depending on how Congress shakes out, but I wouldn’t call it a “landslide.”
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Setting aside his prognosticating, though, I think that for all his theatrics, Hulk Hogan may be on to something here. For quite a while now, as noted above, the Democrats have been a party representing a few loud, obnoxious special interests, and plenty of regular folks are tired of it. I know I am. We’re tired of being lectured over our “carbon footprints.” We gray-haired old white dudes are tired of hearing how we’re racist, sexist homophobes. Young white dudes are tired of it, too, and they are breaking towards conservatism at an ever-increasing pace. We’re tired of being called “transphobic” for not wanting young dudes playing on our daughters’ and granddaughters’ sports teams – and sharing their locker rooms and showers. We’re tired of being called racist for laying legitimate criticisms on liberal politicians who are “people of color.”
We’re just tired of all of it, and we get the feeling that maybe Donald Trump is tired of it, too.
Look, plenty of people – like me – just want to go about our daily business, live our lives, earn our livings, and not be bothered. The Democrats seem to want to bother us all the time. That’s in no small part why they’re losing this election, and maybe Mr. Hogan is right – maybe this thing will be more decisive than it looks.
We’ll find out soon enough.
