The 2024 election could challenge American democracy itself

The 2024 Presidential campaign already portends to be the most disruptive and constitutionally challenging in our nation’s history.

In my lifetime, there was the 1968 presidential campaign, which saw war rage in Vietnam, the incumbent President Lyndon Johnson unexpectedly withdraw from the race in March, Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated in April, Robert Kennedy assassinated in June, major cities in flames, the Democratic National Convention turn into a war zone between cops and demonstrators in August, a strong third-party candidacy by George Wallace and a very close victory for Richard Nixon over Hubert Humphrey on Election Day. Then in 2000 the relatively tranquil Bush-Gore campaign erupted into a constitutional crisis when the decisive Florida vote count was fought out for weeks in state and federal courts before the Supreme Court declared Bush the president by a 5-4 margin. Thankfully, Al Gore accepted that decision. And, of course, there was the 2020 Trump-Biden election, all too fresh in our minds, with Trump refusing to concede defeat and challenging the results in various states, culminating in the indefensible Jan. 6 attack on our nation’s capital.

Those three presidential campaigns, however, pale in comparison to what we are already facing and will continue to confront in the 2024 campaign. This could well be a challenge to democracy. The two leading contenders in both parties, former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, are opposed by a majority of the voting public. Trump is under indictment in four jurisdictions, three of which relate directly to the 2020 campaign and its aftermath. (My position is that while much of Trump’s conduct was absolutely indefensible, it was not criminal.) With each indictment, Trump’s poll numbers increase among the Republican base but show flagging support among key independent swing voters and increasing voter fatigue.

Biden shows himself lost and confused overall while the public views an apparent double standard in how the Justice Department deals with Hunter Biden’s scandals and its failure to pursue evidence of Joe Biden’s connection to those scandals, in contrast with its zealous pursuit of Trump.

There is no reason to think that Biden would be more focused in a second term or that Trump would be any less self-centered. The upcoming campaign threatens to be a race to the bottom between an indicted (and possibly convicted) Trump and a confused Joe Biden burdened by his possible connections to Hunter’s criminal actions. Key issues such as immigration, crime, Ukraine and Chinese expansion will be reduced to sound bites, if discussed at all.

It doesn’t have to be like this. America can right the way. We came through the Civil War, the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, the Cold War and 9/11. Americans must use their freedoms to bridge the divide and, without sacrificing principles, stop being a nation of warring camps. This applies not just to politicians and rank-and-file voters but to the media as well, if not more so. Media outlets should be more than mere silos or echo chambers.

Even if both parties nominated outstanding candidates, the times and challenges would be perilous. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens the order and stability in Western Europe, which was established with American leadership and by NATO after World War II and was extended to the captive nations of Eastern Europe with the fall of the Iron Curtain. If we lose our will in Ukraine, countries such as Germany could well fall into Russia’s economic orbit with its dependence on Russia’s massive energy reserves — an issue compounded by Biden’s policies inhibiting domestic oil production.

China’s collaboration with Russia, while not an outright alliance, causes countries like Japan, the Philippines and South Korea that have stood with us against China’s hegemony to carefully monitor our stand in Ukraine. Any weakening by the U.S. and our European allies will cause doubts among Asian allies, weaken our military and economic stance in the region and increase the odds of China moving against Taiwan.

Considering the daunting, myriad foreign and domestic challenges we face, Americans who have a megaphone, no matter how large or small, should be demanding rational debate and discussion from our candidates and an end to bumper sticker-slogans. Our history and our future as a nation deserve no less!

Peter King was the U.S. representative of New York’s 2nd and 3rd congressional districts for 28 years, including serving as chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. Follow him on X @RepPeteKing.