The internet carried reports this weekend of a Trump rally drawing 50,000 people to Pickens, S.C. (pop. a bit more than 3,000) on July 1 — with temperatures in the 90s.

The only way Chris Christie would see a crowd of that size were if he attended a Giants or Jets football game in the Meadowlands.  On the strength of his political popularity, Christie would be lucky to attract a crowd of 5,000, most of whom would not be enthusiastic supporters.  Who, through the entire continental United States, plus Alaska and Hawaii, would be a Chris Christie enthusiast?  Talk about having an inflated sense of self!

An observation of the Pickens throng may be relevant in the context of an experience of this writer, going back 59 years.  As a low-level aide on the campaign of U.S. senator Kenneth B. Keating, challenged by Robert F. Kennedy in the 1964 New York race for the U.S. Senate, one of my duties was to follow the RFK campaign in New York City and report on Kennedy's support and campaign statements.  One early evening, in October 1964, it must have been, Kennedy held a rally at 170th Street and Walton Avenue in The Bronx, not far from where I lived.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a huge throng gathered at this nondescript location a block west of the Grand Concourse.  On seeing the huge crowd on my turf showing support for RFK, I sensed immediately that Sen. Keating would not be re-elected — and, of course, he was soundly defeated by Kennedy.

Now consider that Pickens crowd as a political canary in a coal mine.  Certainly, Chris Christie could never draw such a throng.  Is there, however, any GOP candidate who could?  DeSantis, Pence, Haley, Ramaswamy, that young millionaire entrepreneur?  If Ronna McDaniel were to come out of hiding, she would be wise to nudge the Republican National Committee to accept the inevitable: the people want Donald J. Trump to be their champion again come January 20. 2025 — as he says he will be.  It is expected that the Barrs and the Ryans, the Cheneys and the Christies will be left to teeth-gnashing and insulting the people in the manner of a Hillary Clinton — declaring an end to democracy in America.  But teeth-gnashing is to be the mark of the victims of Trump Derangement Syndrome, left to compete with one another for the wittiest, if ineffective, takedown of the once and future president.

The political truth is, a second presidential term for Donald J. Trump will be a triumph of democracy in America — and proof of the vitality of the American spirit of freedom.

Image: Gage Skidmore.