Why it might be better to let Trump run for President and lose of his own accord, rather than risk a potentially avoidable disaster.
If you are anything like me, the prospect of Donald Trump actually being held accountable for _(insert one of 34 crimes here)_ invokes a glimmer of hope that justice may still be possible in our legal system. Yet at the same time, I fear that my eagerness to see his political end once-and-for-all may be unfounded — not because I worry he will escape charges and run for President, but because I worry that he will, in fact, be charged with a felony, and therefore not be able to run in the 2024 election.
Now hold on a minute — how could Donald Trump not running for the Presidency possibly be a bad thing?! While, I believe that Donald Trump is a criminal beyond a shadow of doubt, I am genuinely concerned about the fact that his diehard political base might not tolerate a “stonewalled” election. In other words, by stopping Donald Trump from running in the first place — on what many believe is nothing more than a Democrat-sponsored “witch hunt” — we may actually be providing more fuel for his loyalists to claim foul-play, and ultimately setting ourselves up for yet another insurrection.
As much as I am not a fan of sports analogies, let’s imagine for a moment that we were witnessing the next go-around of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. If one of the top-favored teams was suddenly slapped with legal allegations concerning steroid use that stopped them from being able play, regardless of whether or not they had actually been using performance-enhancing drugs, the fans of that team would undoubtedly be furious. Moreover, this would also provide them with every reason to claim that had their team would have been the true winners had they been allowed to compete. Needless to say, the fallout would potentially be disastrous for the NCAA.
“We may actually be providing more fuel for his loyalists to claim foul-play, and ultimately setting ourselves up for yet another insurrection.”
Now in this case, we are not talking about sports fans nor an esteemed college basketball tournament. We are talking about the whims of a bonafide narcissistic sociopath who is genuinely comparing his indictment to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ; We are also talking about tens of millions of extremely angry, disenfranchised Americans, many of whom were more than willing to storm the Capital Building the first time they believed the election had been stolen from them. Given how things played out in 2020, I can only begin to imagine how some MAGA folks might respond if their candidate is “denied” yet another victory.
I hope that I am 100% wrong, but I fear that if Donald Trump receives felony charges and is denied the chance to run for President, we may be headed toward what could have otherwise been an avoidable disaster. At best, we are creating an irreparable rift in our political landscape. Worst-case scenario though, is that we may witness an insurrection on a scale that makes the first one look like a peaceful demonstration.
Ultimately, the prospect of Trump being barred from the election is in many ways scarier than facing the statistically low odds that he actually manages to get re-elected. So as much as I hate to say it, I think we might be better off letting Donald Trump run for President a fourth time — and hopefully losing fair-and-square of his own accord. Otherwise, we may come to regret our valiant hopes of “justice being served.”
