Does Not Play Well With Others

That’s Trump. There is angst about state governments keeping him off the ballot. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb here by disagreeing.

Like any other sentient human, nothing would please me more than Trump suffering a smashing defeat in the 2024 elections. Indications are this is unlikely, but even so there is an overriding principle.

That principle is that if you don’t agree to abide by the rules of a game, nobody should play with you, and you shouldn’t be allowed to play. In Trump’s case, even in 2016 he failed to commit to accepting the results of the election. Of course, by now he has demonstrated his contempt for the law countless times. You wouldn’t play cards with somebody who demanded his money back, after losing it all at the table.

Democratic elections rest on an ethos of cooperation. The law prevents the winner from riding roughshod over the losers, and the losers agree to go home and lick their wounds. They are allowed to try again, if they can. Trump decisively rejects this framework, so he should not be permitted to exploit it. To paraphrase a popular nostrum, often from right-wing sources, the Constitution is not a suicide pact.

The tactical benefit of a landslide Trump defeat at the polls that disheartens his followers is probably not in the cards. The likely narrow defeat he will face would only inflames them. They would continue to be a pain in the ass for years. Nor will he shut up either. So this potential source of a teachable moment for the MAGA millions is not available. A more important lesson, however, is that if you want to play in politics, you have to abide by the rules and the results. Keeping Trump off the ballot is the best way to provide that lesson. As I like to say, it’s also the humane alternative.