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This week brought some clarity to the presidential race. Or maybe I should say “more” clarity, because it’s not like there was a whole lot of ambiguity when it comes to who will be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
Donald Trump’s easy win in Monday’s Iowa caucuses confirmed what polls have said for more than a year now: The party’s voters want him back on top of the ticket and, next year, back in the White House.
And just as there’s not much mystery about whether Trump will be the GOP’s presidential candidate, there should be no mystery at all about what a Trump win would mean for America. Trump himself made that clear (again) when he proclaimed in ALL CAPS on his Truth Social site on Thursday that presidents should have total immunity from criminal charges for any actions they take while serving in office. In other words, the president is literally above the law.
The threat Trump poses to the norms of how American democracy should work is arguably the most important issue in this year’s presidential election. With any luck, voters will have that challenge foremost in their minds when they cast ballots in November.
But it’s not the only issue. Electing Trump would also have implications for more practical and material concerns. Will there be money to finance vital programs when the biggest item on the domestic agenda is big tax cuts for the wealthy? Will factories be safe for workers when pro-business ideologues are running the Labor Department? Will health care become more unaffordable under a president still determined to repeal Obamacare?
Going forward, there’s a real danger these everyday, bread-and-butter issues won’t get the attention they deserve ― partly because the big, existential questions about American democracy and law loom so large, and partly because Trump’s sporadic, frequently incoherent statements about policy make it…
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