What is the 2024 election about?

Summer is over, and the first votes of the 2024 election are less than six months away.

The months ahead will be chaotic and dangerous for America because the risks of political and extremist violence will rise predictably with Trump’s incitements, winks and nods, conspiracy theories, defamations, threats and fundraising success that fuels the vicious circle. Judging from the first MAGA/GOP debate of cynics, demagogues, bullshitters, callow opportunists, hand-raising, finger-in-the-wind Trump sycophants and Governor Asa Hutchison, there will be no clear articulation of what the 2024 presidential election should be about, what the stakes are, what the Republican Party should be about, or how to move on from Trump. Aesthetically, the debate was simultaneously and contradictorily banal and mesmerizing, dishonest and illuminating, laughable and frightening, clownish and menacing, and utterly devoid of substance. It was thin fascist gruel, mixed with a few dashes of Fox Nation freak show tossed in. It was two hours about nothing. It lacked gravity and tethering to basic reality.

There was another report on political strategy written up by the NBC News politics team about President Biden’s re-election strategy.  It talks about anonymous Democrats in Washington, DC, being panicked over the Biden campaign’s relative silence about Trump. The story covers a range of thinking from “it’s too early to engage with Trump,” to “it’s inappropriate to comment on the pending trials,” to “President Biden should keep the focus on the performance of the economy and abortion” to “he should directly engage Trump.”

The story paints a portrait of political uncertainty at a moment of great importance for the country. There seems to be no clear and discernible vision from the Biden campaign regarding what they think the election should be about, or is about. Or is it ‘Bidenomics,’ which is premised on telling the majority of the country they’re wrong about what they feel and believe concerning the economy?

There is no clear rationale offered around the meaning of the moment from the campaign in the reporting. By the way, what is the meaning of the moment? What is happening? What is at stake?

The NBC story perfectly illuminates the disconnect between Washington, DC, Democratic Party strategists and ordinary American Democrats. The chasm is astonishing.

Overwhelmingly, the American people believe three things about this moment in America — outside of their feelings towards Donald Trump.  Substantial numbers of voters believe the following:

1. The economy is not good.

2. They think Biden is too old to run again.

3. They do not want to see a Biden-Trump rematch. At all.

The simple truth is that the party leaders in Washington, DC, simply don’t want to hear it. The talking point is clear: Joe Biden is the best president since FDR, and the data says the economy is great. This also applies to the age question. The White House has announced that they plan to run on the president’s wisdom accumulated from his age. Certainly, that is their prerogative, but there is a Sisyphean element to the task, given the findings of this poll.

The bottom line is that many of these issues have already been decided, and not in the president’s favor. It explains why he remains in a dead heat against Donald Trump, the accused criminal and the worst president in American history.  The White House communication operation — for whatever reason — has chosen the path of avoidance over confrontation when it comes to the constant smears over Biden’s fitness for office. This issue is driven by what people see with their eyes, not what they are told.

Let’s create a case study.

Here is a picture of the inaugural crowds at the inaugurations of Donald Trump and President Obama:

Trump’s inauguration (left) and Obama’s in 2009 viewed from the Washington Monument

Which one is bigger?

Did you change your mind when this man started screaming at you claiming otherwise?

Former press secretary Sean Spicer, who made outrageously false claims about Trump’s inaugural crowd, also played the role of the Easter Bunny at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll during George W. Bush’s presidency

Again, let me ask the question: what is the election about?

The answer is very simple. It is about one thing: the American way of life. Period. Full stop. 

American society is built around a concept that is under threat because an American president broke the law, shattered his oath, denied the results of an election, refused to concede a presidential election, incited an insurrection and conspired to commit a coup. Nearly every single elected member of Congress from the accused criminal’s party went along lock, stock and barrel. They all made the decision to ride the proverbial tiger, and they all wound up inside. The few who dissented are mostly out of Congress, and the brave Republicans who told Trump “no” have mostly been driven from public life.

There is no ability for the American republic to survive when one of the two major political parties doesn’t believe in election results that don’t sate their desire for power. The line that was crossed was a rubicon. How can it be uncrossed? The idea that sustains it must be confronted and snuffed out. The question should be brought forward and out in front of the American people. 

A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to imprison political opponents. Listen to his words. 

A vote for Donald Trump is the last vote. That is what the election must be about —and if it isn’t, then we will lose the country together. 

What do you think?

Do you think California deserves a US senator who has given power of attorney to her daughter? 

What about six more years for Mitch? 

What risk will the Democratic Party’s voters take with the country’s democracy? According to all of the experts in Washington there is no higher priority than making sure the voters get the race they don’t want. 

What usually happens when this occurs in America? How does it work out? 

Almost always, the answer is “unpredictably.” Get ready for major political volatility.