Trumpus Horribilis, Part 1

The worst thing that could happen to America in 2024 is the re-election of Donald J. Trump. Our predicate for that assertion, of course, is the very opposite of the fear-mongering claim by Never Trumpers that the Donald is an incipient dictator.

Actually, he is no match whatsoever for the embedded roadblocks to tyranny posed by James Madison’s wonderful contraption of checks and balances. The inherent stalemate that it confers upon the government machinery of Washington virtually guarantees that a man on white horse will never ride forth from inside the White House gates.

Indeed, the Donald has already proven his own utter incompetence as a leader, political operator and decision-maker. So when you combine his ample personal ineptitudes with Madison’s steely guardrails, the Never Trumper’s “dictator” case pretty much dissolves into a nothing-burger.

No, the problem is not the prospect of too much power in the Oval Office, but the virtual certainty that both capitalist prosperity and democratic governance will come a cropper in America because of too much government spending, debt, money-printing and meddling at home and intervention abroad.

But reversing the flow of history with respect to these fundamental matters of economic and fiscal governance is not something capable of being resolved in one sitting of a presidential term. Instead, it will require a reconstituted conservative party organized around the principles of Fortress America on the national security front and Federalism, balanced budgets, sound money and minimalist governance from Washington.

Needless to say, these principles are as foreign to the Donald’s mindset and temperament as is the notion of humility and respect for others. Accordingly, the sine quo non of sustainable escape from America’s headlong rush toward economic and political disaster is a political stage where Donald Trump is nowhere to be seen.