Before I get into politics, I’d like to address a few other things. To those of you who celebrate it, a Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Boxing Day (I know that’s primarily a Canadian and UK holiday). A special shout out to my English friends – well I will benefit too – enjoy the restart of the English Premier League. I know I will!

Well, the joy is over because I want to contemplate something serious in American politics. Do we give (and perhaps aid in giving) Donald Trump a mulligan? Just days after the November elections Trump announced that he would pursue the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. The scary part is that I see a path for him to win it. The scarier part is that Democrats could opt to help him do just that.

Many Republicans are finally starting to, (I would say too cautiously), distance themselves from Trump. Not because he was a failed president. Not because he appears to be a criminal (innocent until proven guilty in a court of law). Not because he is in legal jeopardy. Not because he is a racist, an anti-Semite, xenophobe and misogynist. Not because he is a proven liar. Not because he has proven he lacks the mental chops to serve in that office. No, none of those reasons. The reason they are beginning to distance themselves from him is because they have finally realized that he is a loser and he is costing them seats.

What I fear will materialize is that a plethora of Republicans who want to be president will smell blood in the water and there will be a crowded field of, to one degree or another, “not Trumps”. Trump most likely will win the GOP nod in that kind of field. It’s too much like the 2016 GOP field which Trump won in because he was different and a plurality, not majority, can elected a nominee.

The present-day GOP is an all about me and all about me winning party. They could care less about the fate of the nation or the world. Contrast that with the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. When it appeared that Bernie Sanders was headed to the nomination and the conventional wisdom was that he couldn’t win the general thereby denying Trump a second term they coalesced behind a single candidate (Joe Biden) who could stop Trump. In several cases at great personal political cost to themselves but for the good of mankind. Can you see Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley etc. making a similar sacrifice? I can’t. If they drop out it will be because of a combination of poor polling and funds drying up.

Should he get that far, Trump is extremely vulnerable in the 2024 general election. There is a temptation for the Democrats to run a dangerous play that they have in the past and support what they perceive as the most beatable Republican in the primary (in this case Trump) so that they have the best path to victory in the general which, after all, is the only election that really counts. The Democrats have had outstanding success running this play before. The danger is what happens if it fails and the supposedly unacceptable to the voters candidate actually wins. It can happen.

Despite his claim that he is a very stable genius, Trump is neither. However, even he and the often less than bright minions he surrounds himself with have to have learned a few things in their unsuccessful 2021 attempt to overthrow the government. (In what other country would this guy still be outside of prison?) If Trump gets back in the Oval Office the only way he is leaving is with the assistance of the coroner.

We have to let the Republicans sort their field out by themselves because to back Trump would be the most dangerous mulligan in the history of the world!

This article was written well ahead of publishing in order to accommodate my year end hiatus and is the property of tellthetruthonthem.com. Its content may not be used without citing the source. It may not be reproduced without the permission of Larry Marciniak.