"Donald Trump’s 2015 descent down the escalator to announce his candidacy was symbolic. It marked the fall of the party establishment and the beginning of a hostile takeover by a talented showman who excelled in the performance aspect of politics. A now-exiled member of the establishment, Liz Cheney, states, “What we’ve done in our politics is to create a situation where we’re electing idiots.” Republican presidential candidate Will Hurd recently told a gathering of Iowa Republicans: “Donald Trump is running for president in order for him to stay out of jail.” Hurd is right. A conviction on any of the charges levied against the former president could send him to prison for the rest of his life. Only the comforts of the White House, and a president armed with a pen who is willing to pardon Trump, can salvage what remains of his life. Meanwhile, any reports of the Democratic party’s demise are highly overrated. During the past two years, the centrist and progressive wings of the party have united behind President Biden. What opposition there is to a second Biden term centers on one issue: his age. Unlike the third-party candidacy of Strom Thurmond in 1948, who objected to Harry Truman’s civil rights policy, or the challenges by Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy to Lyndon B. Johnson’s Vietnam War 20 years later, the policies pursued by the Biden-Harris administration are popular both within the party and without."