Democrats Rejoice in Trump’s Pending Indictment: The Democrats have calculated that in 2024 it would be better square off against Donald J. Trump as the Republican nominee rather than Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Democrats anticipate a schadenfreude-filled photo op in which the forty-fifth president is carted off in handcuffs—thereby proving their claims that he, not their beloved Hillary Clinton, would be “locked up.”
This, as current Democratic Party President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, pays no price for galivanting around the world collecting money from foreign leaders in order for those leaders to have access to the presidency.
Alas, the hypocrisy of the Democrats regarding the Biden family and their scandals versus former President Trump and his controversies risks getting boring. Until the House GOP can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt (which, I believe they can over time) that Hunter Biden was serving as a front man for an illicit international influence peddling scheme to give any foreign government or corporation access to Joe Biden for a high fee, Donald Trump’s scandals will always generate more headlines.
Generating Buzz
President Joe Biden and the Democrats badly want to whip up their base because, if Biden is the nominee in the 2024 Presidential Election, then he will have a difficult time rallying people if left to his own devices. Biden needs a foil as much as Donald Trump does.
For Biden, his schtick is that he’s the consistent and calm helmsman whereas Trump is the mad bomber. Trump is a walking controversy. His talent to galvanize followers is as potent as his ability to militate people against him with his various public controversies. Trump’s love of controversy is what made him famous.
Yet, for Biden, it is Trump’s greatest weakness—and possibly a reliable pathway to a second term in the White House.
Any other Republican nominee, such as DeSantis, might not be able to generate the kind of controversy that Biden needs to bring voters out for him en masse. In 2020, for example, most voters who supported Biden did so less because they believed in him and more because they were sick of Trump. These same voters over the last few years have grown tired of Biden. If given another option besides Biden or Trump, such as Ron DeSantis, these voters might decide to give the younger, articulate Republican candidate a chance to be the forty-seventh president.
If, however, the Democrats can get photos of Trump being whisked away to a Manhattan courthouse in handcuffs then Biden can ensure that the GOP base makes the aggrieved Trump their nominee. With Trump as the GOP nominee, the Democrats can run the same strategy of bringing those disaffected voters who disliked Trump (but who’ve grown weary of Biden) back into the Biden camp. That’s all that the Democrats need.
When Trump goes on the attack against “Sleepy” Joe Biden, all the Democrats have to do is post the pictures of Trump being arrested or in trial. They will do this as they are making the case that Biden, for all his faults, is a safer bet for America. This dual strategy of reminding fence-sitting voters of Trump’s criminality (as they call it) and his unpredictable style will militate the independents against Trump.
Trump will have his base of committed voters who will be with him, no matter what. Yet, as 2020 proved, that group is insufficient in size to put Trump over the edge. The Democrats are banking that Trump’s over-the-top style paired with his possible indictment will prove to voters that Biden is the man for our age (which is clearly an absurd age).
American Elections: The New Bread-and-Circuses Before the Fall
Biden beat Trump once before. By giving the Democratic and independent voters the nightmare fuel of Donald Trump returning to the White House, Biden just might get the boost he needs to stay in power. All this, of course, depends on the notion that the country isn’t totally falling apart by the time voters go to the polls in November 2024.
Or, at least, if the mainstream media has covered up much of the epic failures that Biden has presided over since becoming president.
A surefire way to end-run Biden’s best-laid plans would be for the Republicans to cast their eyes upon Ron DeSantis more than they have.
Of course, if Trump is indicted, DeSantis’ potential campaign will have gotten more complex as GOP voters, feeling as though they are being targeted through Trump, will rally around the forty-fifth president (which is Trump’s great plan).
I, for one, am ready to turn the page on the chaos and uncertainty of this era by letting a new generation of leaders take power.
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Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who serves as a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive.com. Weichert is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as a contributing editor at American Greatness and the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower(Republic Book Publishers), The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (March 28), and Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (May 16). Weichert can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
