The history behind today's cry: 'Return, Donald! Return!'
Will Nov. 5 sound America's clarion call for Donald Trump to "Return!" to the White House? With last week's election model from The Economist giving Trump a 2-in-3 probability of winning, I offer an inspiring love story from Colonial America, a call to "Return!" that created a family and blessed a new nation.
Young Jonathan Meigs, expectations soaring, rode high in the saddle onto the grounds of an 18th century Connecticut estate in New England. He had come to request permission to marry the girl with whom he had fallen in love.
Her father, a stern Quaker, regarded his daughter's suitor as entirely unsuitable. Coldly rejecting the young man, he ordered Jonathan, "Ride away!"
Broken in spirit, Jonathan mounted his horse to leave but, before he was out of earshot, he heard his love's voice calling from an upstairs window, "Return, Jonathan! Return!"
So sweet was the word, "Return!" that the couple named their firstborn son Return Jonathan, the very same Return Jonathan Meigs who served valiantly in his country's struggle for freedom under Gen. George Washington. His son, Return Jonathan Meigs Jr., would become Ohio's fourth governor (1810–1814), also serving both as a United States senator and our country's fifth postmaster general.
Reflecting on this story, I wonder if Donald Trump, forced to "Ride away!" in 2020, is now stepping up to answer the call of many Americans, "Return, Donald! Return!"
From the beginning of Trump's political aspirations, Establishment institutions of the Deep State regarded Trump as entirely unsuitable for the presidency.
"Ride away!" screeched Hillary, financing the Steele dossier to create what would become the foul wasteland of fake Russian collusion.
"Ride away!" bawled the legacy media incessantly, garnering Pulitzers for swallowing and regurgitating lies.
"Ride away!" barked the Blinken-orchestrated 51 former Intelligence "experts," desperate before the 2020 election to deflect American's eyes away from the laptop in which Hunter had implicated his father in the influence-peddling scheme to enrich the Biden family.
"Ride away!" I suspect Judge Merchan will gleefully pronounce at sentencing July 11, hoping to land a fatal blow to the Trump campaign, despite knowing it will likely be overturned on appeal.
Trump, though, seems to have successfully tuned out the "Ride away!" commands, instead tuning in the growing swell of voices calling him to "Return!"
"Return!" erupted Newark's UFC-packed Prudential Center when, soon after the guilty verdict, Trump entered to boisterous cheers from fans seeing him as a victim of a politicized judicial system.
"Return!" scream an increasing number of young voters, remembering their own rosier, pre-Bidenflation financial outlook.
"Return!" urge many billionaires from the Democrat stronghold of Silicon Valley, raising $12 million in a single foray hosted by David O. Sacks, more than doubling their goal of $5 million.
As Biden's approval numbers plummet through the 30s, people are waking up, zealously calling Trump back from what could have been an easy ride away from Washington.
Why on earth would he run again? Had Donald Trump heeded the "Ride away!" commands of the Deep State and complicit fake media, his vanishing visage over the horizon would have been no threat to the Establishment. No Mar-a-lago raid. No indictments. No trials. No threats to destroy his New York businesses.
Why would Trump not simply accept reality, give up on his dreams and "Ride away!" to enjoy the plentiful fruits of his labors, succulently ripened for his pleasure and delight?
The answer to that question takes me back to Jonathan Meigs. Despite rejection from the family's "Establishment" father figure, Jonathan's heart of love and excited expectations were met and enlivened by his love's call to "Return!" a combo creating a dynamism overcoming outside resistance.
For Donald Trump, his love for America and soaring vision to Make America Great Again are being met and invigorated by the calls to "Return!" a combination creating a formidable political force against outside resistance.
"Return!" scream millions, struggling with the impact of inflation on their family's budgets.
"Return!" shout millions, frightened by the dangers of an open border.
"Return!" thunder millions, disgusted with the weaponization of justice.
"Return!" roar millions, appalled by Biden's disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.
"Return!" yell millions, wearying of foreign wars such as Israel in Gaza, ignited by an Oct. 7 Hamas attack enabled by Biden's Iranian policy.
As a student of Hebrew scripture, I find the Trump 2024 phenomenon fascinatingly parallel to the biblical account of King David's "Ride away!" crisis from Jerusalem after Absalom's successful revolution, followed by the people's urgent call: "Return, David! Return!"
David's "Ride away!" catastrophe is recorded in 2 Samuel 15:13-14 (The Message):
Someone came to David with the report,
"The whole country has taken up with Absalom!"
"Up and out of here!" called David to all his servants ...
"We've got to run for our lives or none of us will escape Absalom!"
Verse 30 details the king's "Ride away!" flight. Head covered and barefoot for camouflage, a defeated King David ascended the Mount of Olives, "weeping as he went."
David's political career, though, was not over. After Absalom's demise, the people remembered how much better their lives were before Absalom, and began to clamor for David to "Return!"
2 Samuel 19:10, 14-15 describes the people's urgency:
"So what are you waiting for?
Why don't you bring the king back?"
They were unanimous in sending for the king:
"Come back! You and all your servants."
So the king returned.
Donald Trump, for a very long time, has been treated to a chorus of "Ride away!" chants from those who regard him as entirely unworthy to be America's president.
Looking back, though, after three years of Joe Biden and the Democrats, many can't seem to remember what it was about the Trump presidency that they wouldn't want back, resulting in millions upon millions of Americans hungrily issuing the call: "Return, Donald! Return!"
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