Chris Christie, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Tim Scott: In alphabetical order, those are the five contenders who will take the stage in Miami tonight to make their respective cases to become the Republican nominee for president next year. The highest profile appearance former President Donald Trump is making this week was on the witness stand in a New York courtroom — but based on every public opinion poll, including of the early states, the GOP contest remains his to lose.
This is very bad for our country. As dangerous as Trump was in 2016, as much more serious a threat as he was in 2020, it is not hyperbole to say that in 2024 he presents what amounts to an existential threat to the modern American democratic system as we know it.
The past of Jan. 6, 2021 is prologue for 2024 and 2025: If Trump is the nominee and loses again like he did last time, he will almost surely refuse to accept defeat. Conspiracy theories will spread among an aggrieved and potentially violent minority. The center may not hold.
If Trump is the nominee and wins a second term, the nation will be plunged into what will likely be an even darker place. He will be emboldened. He will be unhinged.
He has already indicated his interest in limiting the authority of federal agencies in order to strengthen the power of the president — which is to say, running roughshod over carefully designed, legally essential checks and balances.
He says he’d use the U.S. military to go after drug cartels and street crime. He has pledged to push to legalize concealed carry of firearms from coast to coast.
He has left no doubt he will pardon his criminal allies and wield federal agencies to punish his enemies. He has publicly vowed to appoint a special prosecutor to “go after” Joe Biden and his family; privately, he has told friends and advisers he wants to investigate former allies turned critics, including former Chief of Staff John Kelly, former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mark Milley and others. This is Richard Nixon’s enemies list to the nth degree.
Any Republican or Democrat would be preferable to Trump, which is why we have urged GOP voters who want someone else to rally around an alternative. From where we sit today, Haley seems the strongest.
But it is especially alarming that exactly a year out from next year’s general election, President Biden, the incumbent president on whose watch the economy has created 14 million jobs and counting, is lagging Trump decisively in a New York Times-Siena College poll. As things stands today, Trump is ahead of Biden in Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and Pennsylvania — all battleground states Biden carried in 2020.
Some Americans have turned away from Biden because of inflation. Some believe the man who will be 81 in two weeks doesn’t have it anymore. Some believe he’s consistently buckled to the far left, while others think he’s been insufficiently progressive.
In no case do we understand how that would lead a sane American to back Trump as an alternative. But it’s undeniable that many do exactly that.
Biden needs to right the ship, and other Democrats with 2024 ambitions need to plan. The United States cannot withstand a second Trump term.
