The debate has taken place, and now the “big boy” press conference has taken place, and the world has become a much more dangerous place as a result.
Senior policymakers in Beijing, Moscow and Tehran understand better than Rahm Emanuel the importance of not letting a crisis go to waste. They know that the arrogance of the Democrats and their mainstream media allies has left America in a more precarious position than at any time in at least the last half century.
The safest outcome would be for our strategic adversaries to decide not to take any action that the United States might view as an act of war.
The military councils of China, Russia, Iran and others are no doubt holding lengthy meetings this week to consider whether to take aggressive steps to pursue their geopolitical interests. They correctly assume that the United States is currently unable to act forcefully and decisively.
World leaders and a majority of American voters naturally think that Joe Biden is not in charge of the White House. But who knows? teeth Certainly no one believes that Vice President Kamala Harris or Biden’s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients have the strategic acumen or political credibility to assume responsibility for an emergency. Any attempt to coordinate a major foreign policy response in an absent White House would invite a constitutional crisis.
Several options may emerge in the coming weeks, most of which would be bad for the United States and deadly for the Democratic Party.
While the fate of political parties may seem less important in the short term, it is by no means unimportant. if If our country can get through these critical weeks without being hit militarily or economically by one of our adversaries, November 2024 could be what political scientists call a “realignment election” — an election of such magnitude that it could sweep the Democratic Party and reshape the political landscape for a generation.
The safest outcome for the country and for the Democratic Party would be for our strategic enemies to decide not to take any action that the United States would consider an act of war (for whatever reason), and the presidential election would proceed regardless of whether Joe Biden appears on the ballot. Relative Things are calm and a landslide victory for Donald Trump is all but certain.
It’s now clear that Biden was not deliberately engineered to fail this disastrous debate. The Democrats had no secret plan to replace him. We should have seen the evidence by now. But Thursday night’s press conference and Democrats’ response to it continue to weaken his case for being the Democratic presidential nominee. And yet, with each passing day, it becomes more difficult for the party to overcome the legal, financial and ideological hurdles that prevent a smooth selection of a new candidate.
Even if Democrats essentially hand the presidency to Trump, the far-left and far-right will likely view him as illegitimate and a “resistance” campaign will predictably unfold, but it will lack much of the urgency and broad support that may have been present before Biden’s apparent dementia became headline news around the world.
Even “acceptable” left-wing rioting needs a pretext for legitimacy. How can Antifa burn down cities in protest of the rejection and questionable last-minute replacement of an apparently aging candidate? Mainstream voters in either party are unlikely to support such a justification for violence, further alienating Democratic extremists and further driving working-class minorities into the Republican Party.
But the Democrats will likely survive.
The alternative is far more dire. Military action that the United States finds unacceptable, perhaps in Taiwan, a NATO country, or the U.S. mainland, could paralyze the country in the coming weeks or months. This would result in serious and permanent damage to U.S. power and credibility. This could also include a major blow to the economic prosperity of the United States, which has long relied on the stability of the dollar and the U.S. security umbrella. It may not be long before the shock to living standards is felt.
Or, because of not only a political power vacuum in the White House but also DEI’s deteriorating military readiness, fiscal mismanagement, and a general lack of seriousness among military and civilian leaders, we could find ourselves haphazardly and disorganized in a military conflict that we quickly lose.
In either case, the blow to the Democratic Party would be devastating. The strange power of woke ideology would surely disappear in the face of real disaster. The fear, uncertainty, and hunger that could actually occur in the case of a military and economic crisis have the power to focus people’s minds. The trendy nonsense that currently occupies much of our attention on social media and cable TV news would be quickly forgotten if reliable access to electricity, health care, and other basic needs suddenly became everyday concerns.
Even if the full scale of the crisis is averted and the United States escapes a worst-case scenario, the close call will be enough to catch most Americans off guard.
The gross corruption of the Washington establishment, the glib incompetence of Democratic gerontocracy, and the sheer irrationality of woke ideology will come under intense scrutiny. The media, universities, and entertainment industries that have contributed so much to support Democratic policies may lose much of their influence. We may gain a new focus on what really matters, and long-deferred (or even suppressed) questions about American citizenship, the common good, and the state of our constitutional government will take on new urgency.
It is conceivable that conservatives and moderates could find a way out of what many fear is a deadlock for the United States.
None of this is guaranteed. Perhaps the crisis can be averted entirely, and administration may proceed more or less as before. But the recklessness and arrogance into which the party of Jefferson and Jackson descended is now fully exposed. The depths of its irresponsibility and deceit are only now becoming clear to many voters. The political dilemma the Democrats have created for themselves may become even more unpleasant once left-wing radicals fully realize how badly their goals have been undermined by the party’s weakened leadership.
Even if the Democrats are politically forgotten, it remains highly uncertain whether Trump and the Republicans will seize this opportunity or squander it into politics as usual, and we must navigate the major strategic crises of the coming months safely.
But for those of us who suspected that America’s constitutional government had reached the point of no return, there seems to be a glimmer of hope. Not much, but good enough for now.
