Notwithstanding the messy intermezzo over the House speakership, Republican congressional chairs James Comer, Jason Smith, and Jim Jordan have used their committees to triangulate a cogent case of rampant political corruption and grift by the Biden family going back at least through his two terms as vice president. Kickbacks for foreign government favors were funneled through a labyrinth of shell companies licensed for ill purposes, with related communications among family members, business associates, and the vice president facilitated by more than five thousand emails masked by several aliases. Biden family wealth grew rapidly once Joe Biden went retail, satisfying quid pro quos that affected and effected foreign policy while shielding and protecting the ongoing criminal conspiracy. The liability of this scheme was to entrust these shakedowns to a drug-addicted and honeypotted son who spent more time out of his pants than in them.

Our global adversaries, an expanding axis spearheaded by Russia and China, now hold a grubstake in the Biden foreign policy garage sale. This pay-to-play scheme runs counter to America’s economic and national security interests and cozies up to countries far more likely to be confronted on the battlefield than at tony world forums and Beltway cocktail parties. There is no reasonable balance that can be struck, given the severity and national security impact of these serial crimes, to any of the gaslit conversations, straw allegations, indictments, and rushed impeachments put upon Donald Trump before, during, and after his presidency.

While Democrats have deployed a strategy to prosecute the former president at the drop of a hat, House Republicans are slow walking their process to wring every Biden malpractice from whistleblowers, business associates, bank records, emails, and subpoenaed witnesses. Kevin McCarthy capitulated to a push from the Freedom Caucus to open an impeachment inquiry, although it did not reduce the personal animosity of those who sent him back into the well of the House. His successor, Mike Johnson, elevated after another three-week interlude of legislative paralysis, appears hesitant to bring a vote that would force a commitment from at least eighteen Republican moderates hailing from Biden-leaning districts.

House and Senate Republican bigwigs appear reluctant to hold firm the ramparts of their own party or advance an effective ground game to win elections. Between episodes of suspended animation, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has been reluctant to fund the campaigns of grassroots candidates and Trump populists.  The danger of McConnell’s mis-state of mind is that his hatred of Trump will metastasize to block the races of solid conservative candidates in swing states.

In 2017, House Speaker Paul Ryan did everything he could to sabotage the Trump agenda,  giving momentum to the Democrats and the gavel to Nancy Pelosi. Ryan left office in 2018 to lambast Trump populism from the sidelines, making a fresh start on the Fox News Board of Directors to drive an ideological wedge between Trump and the network and to shape a contemporary brand of televised neo-conservatism slowly drifting into the lane of the Democrats.

Given the fractious nature of the party, the 118^th Congress is now on track to underperform at levels not seen in more than fifty years. Absent the lifeline of a Democrat tripartite during Pelosi’s leadership, only twenty-one bills have been enacted into law in the first session of the 118^th, compared to eighty-five in the previous session. Many of these bills are symbolic and procedural, of little consequence to an economically depressed country adrift in a dangerous world. In mid-November, Americans can expect another shutdown showdown, with Democrats pointing fingers while Republican caucuses lock horns.

The 2020 electoral makeover that threw the election for Biden has not changed. Voting rights activists will continue to have the wind at their backs in 2024, and the Democrat lawfare against state attempts to improve election integrity have turned the tables on Republicans by alleging election interference and racism by disparate impact. In nine states, ballots are still sent to everyone, regardless of need, request, or a pulse. It bodes poorly for America’s salvation that two-thirds of Democrats and half of Republicans have indicated a strong likelihood that they will vote by mail rather than drag themselves to a polling station. The battle cry to count every vote is still a call to arms for digging up tranches of uncounted ballots in the wee hours and days after the polls close, culminating in sudden reversals of political fortune that favor Democrats.

Drop boxes, the dumpster of choice for illegal ballot deposits by political operatives called mules, continue to be utilized in at least 32 states, with little to no federal prosecutions of known offenders. Although in receipt of credible whistleblower and video evidence, the FBI has downplayed or contested egregious incidents of hundreds of thousands of ballots crossing state lines and unmonitored after hours ballot counting at polling stations. A three-year investigation undertaken by the Postal Service recently proved the FBI wrong in one case; however, no further action has been taken.    

State voting rolls are still bloated and erroneous, particularly in the swing states. In 2020 and 2022, hundreds of legal challenges to the use of outdated voter rolls were defeated in Nevada. Those same registration rolls will now be used in 2024 to mass mail ballots. In challenges issued prior to the 2020 general election, Georgia finally scrubbed 100,000 ineligible voters from its rolls, just in time for Joe Biden to celebrate his first half year in the Oval Office.

The risk of a blue tidal wave of illegal immigrant voters also poses a clear and present danger to the Republican party. Eighteen states under Democrat rule and comprising almost half of the nation’s population issue driver’s licenses to illegals, either without evidence of lawful presence or by displaying other cursory identification or residential information such as pay slips, rental agreements, or utility bills. Fulfilling these requirements, they are automatically registered to vote. Those same registration rolls are used by nine blue states, six of ten declared sanctuaries, to universally mail ballots by default to the addresses provided on the license, likely to include immigrant charity organizations, churches, or other non-profits that have allowed illegals to use their addresses as a pass through for state and federal cash benefits.

Even as illegal immigration continues to transform America from a melting pot into a chamber pot, and the working class suffers through an inflationary economy, rampant crime, spreading wars, and the deism and authoritarianism of climate control, the Biden campaign seems unconcerned about the 2024 election. Biden recently snubbed the New Hampshire primary, a move that foretells his 2024 basement strategy: using his infrequent, take no questions, and scripted press conferences as campaign events with a focus on MAGA extremism and abortion, and refusing to debate with Donald Trump by putting the spotlight on his indictments and gaslighting him as a threat to democracy.

As the Democrats plot out a series of censorious trials and a partisan media offensive calculated to cripple a 2024 Trump candidacy, McConnell persists in his belief that a Biden impeachment will be bad for the country. His reluctance to put the Democrat’s caporegime on the docket, surrendering to Schumer on government shutdown negotiations, and hawkish efforts against curbing Ukraine spending, has all but assured the 118^th Congress another session of gridlock and immobility.

Republicans are ready to pop the corks over several polls that predict a Trump sweep of battleground states in 2024. Democrat pundits are lying in wait, keeping their chips on Joe Biden, and knowing that any of the ninety-one indictments that bring a conviction will chip away any Trump lead. One can only hope for the future of our country that Republican voters energized by lofty expectations are not treated to another race to second place.

Image: DracoEssentialis