Carpe Diem, whoever he is, has provided an excellent list of what the Republicans should do “if they win back the White House.” They should treat the Democrats not as a patriotic opposition but as the architects of a criminal regime bent on destroying its constitutional opposition.
High Democratic officeholders like Kamala Harris have incited and helped finance riots; the Department of Justice has turned a blind eye to Democratic money laundering and bribery, most conspicuously from the Biden family; and Democratic district attorneys and prosecutors have indicted Donald Trump for exercising his First Amendment right to protest the outcome of an election. In this last case the Democrats are going after a hated former president for actions and speech that Democratic officeholders have engaged in with absolute impunity, and indeed with the slobbering support of the mass media.
The Democratic administration also has encouraged violent acts, FBI surveillance, and/or IRS harassment of those whose moral or constitutional views clash with those of the Deep State’s leftist constituents. And to make sure it can create a permanent electoral majority, our Democratic president has thrown open our Southern border to illegals (read future voters), including drug cartels. Carpe Diem is right that we are dealing with an evil, aberrant regime that seems hellbent on taking absolute power.
Unfortunately, this regime can count on the backing of 40 to 50% of America’s voting population and the reality-manipulation of its media handmaidens. I would note that the Nazis before they seized power gained only slightly more than one third of the German electorate. No Communist presidential candidate in American history ever won more than 80,169 votes; and that number was reached at the height of the Great Depression in 1936. The woke Left has a much larger base of support, thanks to the Left’s control of the media, our straying educational system, and America’s intrusive administrative state.
In this situation the most irresponsible act that the beleaguered opposition could commit is renominating Donald Trump. Doing that would lead us into a trap set by the Left. Trump can count on the votes of no more than 36% of the electorate. Most respondents in recent national polls won’t even consider supporting him, and even the decrepit, corrupt Joe Biden causes less indigestion among voters than his likely Republican opponent. The multiple indictments to which Trump has been subject may have won sympathy from his base but has done nothing to make him more electable. Only a slim majority (53%), according to The Hill, would favor pardoning Trump even for the dubious crime of holding classified documents in his residence. This is not a politician with broad majority support.
Although what Trump properly describes as the “fake media” may exaggerate his wrongdoings, while shielding the much worse outrages committed by Democrats, our former president has behaved recklessly enough to bring some of his problems on himself. Josh Hammer is correct about why it would be perilous to hand Trump the Republican nomination:
Trump’s supporters are wrong about the very nature of these four indictments, each one of which necessarily involves a different judge and a different juror pool, and all of which present differing likelihoods of guilt, acquittal or some sort of ultimate plea deal. In the interim, furthermore, Trump will be strapped for time as he is forced to physically jet off to courtrooms in four jurisdictions, and his campaign and supporting super PAC will continue to have their coffers bled dry with ever-mounting legal bills.
Do the Republicans really want to be bothered with this legal Albatross as they work to win back the presidency and gain congressional seats? Do they really want a national campaign that remains mired in the lost presidency of 2020 and in Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021? It would make more sense to nominate someone else who will address present concerns while promising to clean house at the Department of Justice, FBI, IRS, and other government agencies that have been blatantly politicized. That person is not Trump but could conceivably be Ron DeSantis or Vivek Ramaswamy.
Such a candidate won’t be facing multiple trials for what happened or didn’t happen after the last presidential election. That person will have the opportunity to go after a shameful presidency for all the reasons that it should be replaced and then legally investigated. A presidential campaign without Trump can focus on the evil deeds of the other side, which is exactly what Biden’s handlers are trying to avoid by making the next presidential campaign about Trump. Their diversionary strategy could unfortunately work. Please recall how the Democrats won the last senatorial race in Pennsylvania with a brain impaired, far leftist candidate. They achieved their goal, by making the campaign about Republicans wanting to force women to exercise their “reproductive rights” in back alleys. Don’t give the scoundrels another chance to divert attention from Biden’s disgraceful, criminal record! Let’s make this election about the Democrats!