As we watch the hearings of the January 6th Committee with dismay, it is only natural to look ahead to the midterm elections and how they could affect our democracy.  It is also natural in politics to look over the horizon to the 2024 Presidential election as numerous Republicans are assembling campaigns and several of them are on the ballot in 2022.

Both parties have problems.

In a previous column, I wrote that, for the Democrats, an early Biden announcement that he will not run would be greatly beneficial. The Republicans have the opposite problem.

Former President Trump is almost certainly going to announce his candidacy shortly. He will want to blunt the impact of the hearings of the Committee and make it even harder for the Justice Department to pursue a criminal indictment.

Unfortunately, for the Republicans, there is a serious downside. First, Trump becomes a larger issue in the midterms, which is not good for the districts the Republicans hope to flip.  Secondly, it means that either Trump will be the nominee in 2024 or he will lose it to someone else. It is difficult to imagine Trump losing the nomination and not claiming it was stolen from him. What that does to the Republican base filled with Trump voters is probably not good. He is also a weak candidate against most Democrats in 2024.

However, before the Democrats get too excited about an early Trump declaration of candidacy, bear in mind that Biden thinks that only he can defeat Trump. Thus, the advantage of an early Biden opening of the field for other Democrats evaporates and his nomination will then be challenged from non-traditional quarters.

So, we as a country, are being held hostage by the desire of two men in their late 70’s to be in power. While one wants revenge and the other believes he is the only one who can hold off the barbarians the gate (however incorrectly), the facts remain the same.  For the sake of our future, they both need to stand down. If they don’t, the chaos of recent days will only get worse.