Donald Trump is leading the Republican field by 60 points and no votes have even been cast for the 2024 Republican Primaries. When even Mike Pence is folding his tent then it’s over. In 2016, Pence was the guy that gave Trump gravitas. Today Pence is an “also ran” that, like the rest of the field, can’t even get above single digit support. In a parallel universe, Ron DeSantis would be running away with this thing but …
If the Democrats would leave Trump alone, he would go quietly into the good night of history, but they just can’t. They have failed to destroy Trump and that just galls them more than anything. It goes back to an observation once made by Rush Limbaugh which essentially said, if the media didn’t create you then they can’t destroy you.
Democrats have decided that Trump should be the Republican nominee. They thought Sleepy Joe beat Trump once without leaving his basement so the rematch would be more of the same, but Joe has a record to run on now and its horrible. Joe Biden makes Jimmy Carter look good and that’s really had to do.
Now Trump is polling ahead of Biden in almost every swing state, and they are panicked. Enter the 14th Amendment litigation. This will fail for a simple reason; Trump has not been convicted of anything worthy to keep him off the ballot. The so-called January 6th Insurrection was not an insurrection. The truth is we were hoping that John Eastman was right, and Mike Pence would punt the election to Congress for a decision. Pence turned out to be a swamp monster and caved to the Elites. (Took path of least resistance.)
Folks they may crucify Eastman and company now, but I promise you that were the shoe on the other foot, they would argue the exact same legal arguments and would likely get a different result were it to benefit them. Eastman wasn’t wrong, just ahead of his time.
Historically, the courts are very reluctant to get involved in political decisions, including by the way, Bush v Gore. Trump will win on appeal. The only question is whether it will be at the Appellate level or at the Supreme Court. You see, Trump is not the ultimate target of this phony 14 Amendment argument, the Supreme Court is. The Democrats want to bolster their turnout by campaigning against the Supreme Court after they rule to keep Trump on the ballot.
Remember that Democrats play 3-D chess and Republicans can only play checkers, and very badly. (See recent efforts to select a Speaker.)
You see they lost The Court. This was Trump’s fault, and they want it back. Biden can’t win against Trump so you create a strawman that they can beat. The Court can’t defend itself so why not beat them like a pinata?
When this strategy fails, the Dems have Gavin Newsom waiting in the wings to save them. They always have a backup plan. If it takes keeping the black woman or Sleepy Joe off the ballot to maintain the White House, they are willing to toss either of them under the bus.
The Republican Playbook is stale, and the Democrat’s is no better. Their tactics are predictable. However, neither side can control all the variables. This will be fun to watch in an edge of your seat, white knuckle kind of way.