American democracy depends on conflicting opinions competing in the marketplace of ideas, forging solutions that move our nation forward. But it also requires a shared belief in that democracy and the governmental system that is laid out in the U.S. Constitution.
As the first debate among Republican presidential candidates takes place tonight, the hope is that the focus will be on those ideas and a robust defense of democracy. Americans are eager for candidates who can lift our nation up rather dragging it into the gutter of manufactured grievances and paranoia.
That brings us to Donald Trump, who will not be participating in the debate. As the front-runner for the Republican nomination, Trump likely sees little to gain from the debate and has made a shrewd political calculation to sit out.
But his presence will be felt in absentia. Trump has won the past two Republican nominations, and in the process has reshaped the party. He also has violated political norms — either a feature or a bug, depending on your perspective.
While we can have reasonable discussions about Trump’s policies during four years as president, there should be no room for coddling his efforts to overthrow democracy in response to losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden. Tonight’s debate, without Trump’s presence, offers an opportunity for other candidates to begin restoring that democracy by rigorously defending it.
Trump is facing dozens of felony charges in four separate indictments, with two of the indictments resulting from his efforts to halt the certification of the Electoral College results that sealed his defeat. Whether his actions rose to the level of criminality will be determined in court, but there is no doubt they were an egregious assault on our nation’s democracy and our founding principles.
Any aspiring candidate for president should make clear that Trump’s lies about the election and his efforts to overturn that election are an affront to our sensibilities. Voters should soundly reject any candidate who continues to defend actions that culminated in a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
As a reminder to the acolytes who continue to believe Trump: Fox News settled a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Services for $787 million after a series of emails revealed that Fox hosts knew they were lying when they claimed the election was “stolen.”
While Trump and the 2020 election will cloud the debate, potential voters should pay attention to substantive issues.
Abortion rights is likely to be among them, with the Supreme Court turning the issue over to the states and with vastly different policies being enacted throughout the country. Would a candidate support congressional intervention to establish a national policy? Would they support a national ban on abortion, and at what stage of gestation?
Other policy questions involve immigration and securing the southern border; tariffs implemented by Trump and kept in place by Biden; U.S. support for Ukraine as it defends itself against an invasion by Russia; the future of Social Security and Medicare; and tax rates for corporations and individuals. Entitlements and tax rates, in particular, play a role in a spiraling national debt that is more than $32 trillion.
All of these are crucial topics that will help define our nation in the years to come. But they are moot if we allow our democracy to be destroyed from within — a fact that should elevate a single subject to preeminence as candidates begin vying for your vote.
