Why Make This Election About January 6?
[return to Not Going Back]
In most elections I try to focus on the issues and where each candidate stands on them. Not this time. Why? Is it just Trump Derangement Syndrome? I hate Trump too much? I can’t think of anything to say about Harris?
No, it’s because it is better to answer the easy questions first.
Which Grade in Statecraft Are You In?
Different political questions have different levels difficulty. I am amazed at how often people seem to forget this.
Here’s one. How do you shrink the deficit?
To answer that one, you need to know some things. How much does the government spend and collect? What does it spend the money on? Who pays how much taxes? You should also think about what what happen if you cut spending or raised taxes. This isn’t the most difficult question, but its fairly complicated.
Most policy questions are like that. You dislike inflation? Think it’s been too high during the Biden Administration, so maybe we should go with the other guy? Great! What did the other guy propose to do to fix the problem? Is this a realistic solution? What would be a realistic solution? How would you know?
And this is not even the hardest one. How about this question: How do we solve the Israel-Palestine conflict?
The deficit is a college level question, inflation is graduate school, and Mideast Peace – Nobel Prize material.
As voters, we do what we can to figure out which candidate we trust most to deal with these problems. At best it is an educated guess. Even very knowledgeable people have to admit that they may not know the best answer.
Every once in a while, we get a really easy question to answer. Choose the candidate who has been accused by multiple women of chasing after them when they were teens and he was in his thirties? No, pick the the one doesn’t try to date fourteen year olds.
Which brings us to January 6. Do you re-elect the guy that caused a riot trying to overturn the election, or do you pick the other guy?
This is not a graduate school question. This is fifth grade civics. Certainly anyone with a high school degree should be able to tell you that our system is based on democracy, and you can not have a democracy if the election loser refuses to leave office.
Republican voters have made this the easiest choice in at least 100 years of elections. Elect the person who did not try to become a dictator.
But is it the Most Important Question?
Yes.
Why is it the Most Important Question?
Suppose we elect the Harris and Walz ticket, and they mismanage the economy, hand out free sex change operations to illegal immigrants, and ban gas-powered cars. What happens next?
Democrats lose big in Congressional midterm elections and Harris and Walz are replaced in the next election. Whatever damage they did will then be undone by their successors.
Suppose we elect Trump and Vance, and they proceed to dismantle democracy. Then what? Then we may be stuck with the consequences for a very long time, and the process of getting unstuck could be very painful. In the case of Mussolini, who was not even the world’s worst dictator, it took being dragged into World War II on the wrong side and having both sides invade before it was over.
No one knows that a second Trump term would actually destroy our democracy. Maybe Mr. Trump would just keep posting rude tweets on X. But if we return him to power after January 6, the country is sending a powerful message that he can do whatever he wants and not face any consequences. Many of the constraints that stopped him from more extreme actions in his first term would be gone: Trump without guardrails.
Democracy is not an on/off proposition. The harms to the Republic which another Trump presidency could do range from mildly unpleasant to catastrophic. Some of the possibilities are described under Some Scenarios in a post I wrote last winter.
Is Democracy Too Abstract?
What Trump tried to do was not abstract. He lost an election. He tried to stay in power anyway. He riled up his fans to attack Congress, and sat chortling in front of the TV while people waving “Trump” flags engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Capitol Police.
America, is that what you want? I hope that question is not too hard for us.