By Michael P. Riccards

The first of the Republican charade is done. 

We all missed having Donald J, Trump, although the debates he has been on in the past were sideshows with their constant interruptions and annoying attacks on his opponent. Trump monopolized the sound bites, lost any contest of content, but won the race. 

For some reason, because the Lincoln-Douglas debates are so enshrined in our history, we think that such a practice, or in their case series of stunts, would lead to a great president again. What we forget is that Lincoln did not do well in the debates and lost in the state legislature the Senate seat. It was the Cooper Union address later in New York that electrified the nation and led to his nomination. 

Same as the 1960 debate which introduced us to John F. Kennedy. But the one question we must keep asking is how do these people play in front of the leaders of Russia or China or even how do they run along with the obnoxious leaders of France, Italy, Great Britain, or the other minor minds that we have in our sort of alliance?

I have people asking who won on Wednesday. The real question is who did not lose. Who showed the maturity, the judgment, the probity that I want in the White House?

Half the group of candidates could not make a common sense agreement that a former criminal president should not get another chance to create harm, havoc, and provoke retribution. 

In the middle of a difficult war with the Russians, who do we trust to be careful enough to steady the till?  And who is the guy who said, “You can’t waste time on discussing Social Security/Medicare?” If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that public health is crucial to us at this stage of the national game of choice. Do we not remember that over one million of us died from that neglect?

And why do we boo a former prosecutor and governor who dares to suggest that a commander-in-chief must show respect for the Constitution and the rule of law? I come from a respectable Republican family, and we would never have such an abandonment as was shown to Christie. And since when is a minor player from South Carolina an expert on foreign policy? God, where is Nixon when we need him?

The  GOP at its worst was better than these guys at their best. Maybe they just needed some time to grow. Or maybe we need to bring the big fish back into the pond, not because we need his wisdom, but so we can see the stupidity of American democracy.

Don’t you realize the real enemy of the republican form of government is not in Moscow or Beijing or any other foreign host. It is a people who do not care enough to understand what is happening internally. The tree of liberty is rotten. 

Michael P. Riccards, a former college president, is the author of 30 books, including a two-volume history of the presidency, The Ferocious Engine of Democracy, and the recently published Woodrow Wilson as Commander-in-Chief. Riccards wrote this article for the Jandoli Institute.

Categories: Jandoli Institute, Michael Riccards, Politics