OPINION:
Despite his best efforts, former President Donald Trump is in a good spot with respect to the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. At the same time, and for many of the same reasons, Democrats are in a similarly good position to win the 2024 general election for president.
Most of the commentary about the indictment and arrest of Mr. Trump has managed to miss the simple truth that the entire show is good for both the former president (at least as far as the Republican nomination) and for the Democrats.
Mr. Trump, whose followers feed off a sometimes justified and legitimate sense of outrage as well as a persecution complex, managed to raise $12 million in the first few days after his processing in Manhattan. That’s an impressive take for a week’s worth of Truth Socialing.
It should also come as no surprise that the 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest was essentially placed in suspended animation after Mr. Trump’s arrest on charges as thin as gossamer. That, too, works for Mr. Trump, as he holds a 20- to 40-point lead over his nearest competitor. Moreover, it will be difficult for the challengers to restart the campaign, as any attacks on Mr. Trump by fellow Republicans will, for the time being, make the attacker appear to be conspiring with the other side.
As for the Democrats, they are also getting what they want and need out of the arrest. They need to make sure that Mr. Trump is the Republican nominee for president in 2024, mostly because their own candidate is incapable of running, let alone winning, a campaign against anyone else. They plan and prefer to run against Mr. Trump for reasons that are obvious to pretty much everyone who can read survey results.
The only losers here are the American people. The judicial system is being used for political purposes, and those doing the using are no longer even bothering to hide their contempt for the system and for the people who rely on it to dispense justice in an evenhanded way directed by the rule of law.
The voters sense that they are being treated as marks by both sides. Surveys over the last six months have made it clear that voters in both parties and in neither party would prefer that the two senescent and fading leading candidates simply go away and give everyone some options. Unfortunately, the primary system in both parties militates against newcomers and outsiders and toward incumbents and retreads. Ask Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont.
Unfortunately, now the judicial system has also been brought into play — by George Soros, of all people — against potential newcomers. The Democrats not only want to select their own presidential nominee; they also want to select the Republican presidential nominee for 2024.
If you are a Republican primary voter, you should take all of this into account when deciding for whom to vote. Whom do the Democrats want as the Republican nominee for president in 2024? What does that tell you about whom you should want as the Republican nominee for president in 2024?
• Michael McKenna, a columnist for The Washington Times, co-hosts “The Unregulated Podcast.” He was most recently a deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of the Office of Legislative Affairs at the White House.
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