Former President Donald Trump gave a speech recently in Texas. He could have focused on economic problems, President Joe Biden’s incompetence in dealing with Ukraine and other foreign policy problems, and the damage left-wing policies do broadly to our country.
Instead, he dangled pardons for those arrested after the Capitol Hill riot of Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands stormed Congress in a futile attempt to stop the certification of Electoral College votes.
Trump didn’t say he’d run in 2024, which would have triggered legal and financial requirements. But he’s done nothing to scotch fears (or dampen hopes) that he will do so. We believe, as we wrote last September, that the Republican Party and the country would be better off if Trump ruled himself out of the race.
Candidates will emerge early in 2023, setting up “exploratory committees” and declaring themselves fully soon after. From the outset of the campaign, the GOP should be looking forward, beyond 2024, not back at the 2020 election in a vain effort to relitigate the result. Such efforts over more than a year have proven futile and were always based on false hopes and a false narrative. Whoever is the party nominee, his or her message should be “here’s what I’ll do,” not “if I was still there.” People don’t want self-pity; they want solutions and an optimistic dedication to the interests of the country.
Glenn Youngkin followed that model effectively in Virginia, though Democrats and their media allies tried to get him to spend his campaign talking about Trump. Instead, Youngkin centered his gubernatorial campaign on the economy and education and won a state Biden took by 10 percentage points only a year earlier.
GOP candidates’ efforts in 2016 to distinguish themselves from Trump succeeded only in rallying his base. They would do far better now to hammer home the message that they offer the opportunity to put a Republican in the White House for two terms, whereas Trump can offer only one. Gov. Ron DeSantis, Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Gov. Greg Abbott, or any other GOP candidate will not be a term-limited lame duck from day one in office.
Republican voters increasingly tell pollsters they’re closer to their party than they are to its last president. They will want a Republican in 2023 and 2024 who stands a chance of keeping a Democrat out of office for eight years. Uniquely in the likely field of contenders, Trump cannot do that.
Many of Trump’s rivals would continue his more successful policies, making the GOP less prone to military action, more attuned to the working class, more robust on immigration, and more willing to confront school bureaucrats and teachers unions. These candidates would also come without his baggage and drama.
But in addition, they could argue, “In four years, I will be laying out my agenda for a second term. But in four years, Donald Trump can only plan his retirement.”
Only a year from now, Republicans will have to lay out their vision for America if they retake the White House. They’ll point to Biden’s awful record, pick it apart, and say, “Here’s how I will be better.” They must offer voters a reason to look forward, not only to 2024 but to 2028 as well.
The country will be better served not having to choose between two lame ducks.
