At The Federalist, John Daniel Davidson argues that what is holding back the campaigns of Ron DeSantis and the also-rans is turmoil among Republicans resulting from the 2020 election. He notes:
Maybe what we’re seeing now is an early sign that what Democrats, Big Tech, and corporate media did in 2020 was inject poison into our political system, and the 2024 election cycle is going to show us just how deadly that poison is.
Recall that 2020 was unlike any election in American history. One need not declare that it was “stolen” to admit that it was obviously rigged. After all, the people and institutions that rigged it have freely admitted what they did.
To the extent that 2020 was stolen, it wasn’t strictly speaking stolen from Trump but from the American people, the voters who cast their ballots for Trump in good faith, trusting that our elections were free and fair.
To win over GOP primary voters who supported Trump in the past two cycles, (the other) candidates have to speak to the injustice that was done in 2020, they have to admit what happened, name who did it, and affirm that we cannot have a self-governing republic if that’s how our elections are going to be.
Voters who feel they “wuz robbed” will vote for the guy who, in their view, the establishment hates most. We all know who that is.
