OPINION:
Some voters have complained about being forced to choose between “the lesser of two evils” in recent elections. In the 2024 election, it appears we are heading for an even worse choice: the evil of two lessers.
Former President Donald Trump continues demeaning and defaming anyone who disagrees with him. He repeats unproven claims that the 2020 election was “stolen.”
Myriad other inaccurate statements have apparently had a negative influence on President Biden, who has joined him in the mud pit. Recall that it was Mr. Biden who promised to “bring us together” — always an impossibility given the conflicting ideologies of Republicans and Democrats.
In his speech last week near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, Mr. Biden invoked George Washington as an example of a selfless man who refused to be crowned a king, resigned his commission as an Army general after the Revolutionary War, and limited himself to two terms as president.
(An aside: Washington engaged in an insurrection, according to the Dictionary.com definition of the word: “an act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil authority or an established government.”)
Wasn’t the British government “established” over the colonies, however tyrannical it was? Some insurrections turn out better than others. The insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — whether one believes it fits the definition or not — was still a rebellion against a legitimately established government with the express purpose of changing the election results. But I digress.
Mr. Biden’s speech shows voters that 2024 is shaping up as a contest between two lightweights pretending to be heavyweights. If Mr. Trump is elected, Mr. Biden said, America will become like Germany in the 1930s. The very future of democracy is at stake, he claimed. This is how Democrats think. Only when they win elections is the country safe.
This isn’t Mr. Biden’s first trip into the mud. During the 2012 presidential campaign, then-Vice President Biden told a Black audience that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney “would put you all back in chains.”
Mr. Biden apparently thinks his posturing as a pugilist rather than a pragmatist will allow him to outpunch Mr. Trump. That isn’t likely to happen, as Mr. Biden has been viewed as a nice guy. No one calls Mr. Trump nice.
Where is this corrosive language getting us? Why can’t we have a true debate over the best ways to solve our problems? Claiming your opponent would rule like a Nazi or that the other is a crook solves nothing.
When polls show Mr. Biden and his policies are increasingly unpopular, the president has two choices. One is to change course, which he is unlikely to do because that would mean acknowledging he has been wrong. When was the last time you heard a politician admit error?
The other avenue is to ignore his failed policies — from the open border to the national debt, crime, and foreign policy — and claim that if he loses the election to Mr. Trump, it will mean Armageddon for the country. That strategy is not working so far.
Polls also show most Democrats and Republicans prefer neither candidate. If Mr. Trump’s upcoming criminal trials result in convictions, that might diminish his appeal except to the Kool-Aid drinkers.
Perhaps Mr. Biden’s potential impeachment, if the evidence of financial wrongdoing by his family can be proved, might have the same effect on some of the president’s supporters. This late in the game, though, it seems unlikely.
One scenario that could assuage voter angst: Could the rules be changed at both conventions this summer so that if Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden win enough of their primaries to claim the nomination of their respective parties, the delegates could vote to replace them?
One might wish leaders of both parties could get together and offer a deal that promises “we’ll not nominate our guy if you agree not to nominate your guy.” That might sound appealing to some, but it seems equally unlikely. Too bad for America.
• Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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