Next year promises to be a wild year, given the presidential election and the stakes for both America’s ruling class and its people.

Donald Trump represents an existential threat to the ruling class's money, power, and influence. To many voters, though, he is the only option to right the sinking American ship.

The ruling class includes the federal government’s burgeoning administrative state, no longer serving the American people, but instead those in power. Government has morphed from Abraham Lincoln’s dream, “Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth,” to a government with a Marxist disregard for the Constitution and American citizens.

Myriad special interests are also threatened by Trump’s potential return, from corporate media, the racial/gender grievance industry, the military/financial/pharma industrial complex, and other groups gorging themselves at the taxpayer-funded all-you-can-eat buffet.

The Koch juggernaut, representing open borders and globalist trade deals beneficial for big business, but disastrous for American workers, loathe Trump’s America First agenda so much they are spending more than $70 million on Nikki Haley’s campaign, and throwing Ron DeSantis under the bus, to keep U.S. industries flush with low-wage imported labor.

Big business first, America last. Great for the Koch set and their fellow travelers, but not so for Joe the plumber or electrician. What a system we have. George Soros and Charles Koch both purchase American elected officials. Why bother with elections?

Media magpies are soiling their pants over Trump returning to power and securing our borders, deporting those here illegally, and punishing those guilty of true subversion and insurrection against the government.

Administrative state mouthpiece Politico fearmongers another Trump presidency, “Collecting the ingredients and refining the recipe for an authoritarian regime should he win the 2024 presidential election.”

They miss the obvious irony that such an “authoritarian regime” is already in place, thanks to Barack Obama and his third-term puppet, Joe Biden.

Screenshot The Last Refuge / by permission

Even the Republican Party is fighting Trump, as they have been since he rode down the Trump Tower escalator in June 2015. But the GOP is no longer a grand party, it's instead a bunch of petty sore losers realizing that Trump is far more popular than they will ever be.

Chris Christie spends his days on CNN and MSNBC bashing Trump, campaigning on a single issue of “orange man bad,” offering nothing more than tiresome whining. Mitt Romney would rather vote for a Democrat than Donald Trump, assuaging his butt-hurt over Trump not picking him to be Secretary of State.

A weaponized justice system is nipping at Trump’s feet, like chihuahuas biting the feet of a Clydesdale, trying to send Trump to prison via state or federal courts, all to keep him from taking the presidential oath of office in January 2025.

The entire Never-Trump campaign, from both Democrats and Republicans, depends on getting Trump convicted and imprisoned. The will of American voters is irrelevant to them.

Despite it all, Trump is leading the pack. Opinion polls are just a snapshot in time, and a year before the election, much can change. But here is where things stand today:

The RealClearPolitics average has Trump with a 48-point lead over the pack of back-benchers. Trump sits comfortably at 62% with his closest rival Ron DeSantis at 14%, the rest are in single digits including big mouth Chris (Ralph Kramden) Christie at 2%.

Against Biden, the RCP average shows Trump up by 2 points. It’s unlikely Biden will improve, given his progressive cognitive decline, wars on two fronts, inflation, open borders, energy dependency, rising crime, and uninhabitable large cities.

The Rasmussen Reports daily presidential tracking poll shows Sleepy Joe with only 25% strong approval and 42% strong disapproval.

Breitbart notes that Biden is down 12 points against Trump compared to 2020. Good luck to the Koch Brothers empire chipping away at this, even if they spend billions of their vast fortune on their chosen one, Nikki Haley.

The latest Messenger/Harris poll found Trump leading Biden 46% to 42%.

Trump’s message, even if not articulated, is resonating with voters. But the message should be codified and ready for the campaign season.

Donald Trump is a “been there, done that” president. Unlike contenders on either side of the political aisle, from Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and Vivek Ramaswamy, to RFK Jr, Hillary Clinton, or Michelle Obama, none have ever served as president. Donald Trump has and has a record of success.

It’s a simple matter of comparing the Trump and Biden presidencies. Trump served four full years as president. Biden, at the time of the election next year, will be two months short of four years as president. It may seem like a small point, but Democrats will be raising the experience issue and Trump beats Biden on presidential experience come next November.

A media fanboy from NC Newsline praised Biden’s “Decades of experience and practice in making law and policy.” The reporter neglected to mention that Robert Gates, Obama’s Secretary of Defense who, “Doubled down on claim that Biden's been wrong on top foreign policy issues for decades.”

Trump can simply ask the question, as I did on these pages a few months ago, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”. He can ask the same question about America.

Since Biden took office in January 2021, prices for essential goods and services have risen from 20 to 70 percent without a commensurate increase in wages.

By so many measures, we individually and collectively are worse off than four years ago. The debt and deficit have exploded, along with interest payments on the debt. We are at war in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Purchasing power is down while crime and drug overdoses are up. Illegal migration, that which we know about due to millions of “getaways”, is approaching 10 million, more than the population of most U.S. states. Trump’s energy independence has been replaced by much higher fuel and energy costs under Biden.

The question Donald Trump needs to ask voters is simple.

Do you like the way things are now or would you rather things go back to how they were four years ago?

Four years ago isn’t some hypothetical walk back in time. Trump was president then and was responsible, in large part, for the state of America. To borrow a phrase from Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren, Trump did build that, meaning the America of four years ago.

Do Americans yearn for a time of national peace and prosperity or prefer continued chaos, mayhem and economic malaise?

Americans will answer on Election Day but today 62% of likely U.S. voters, according to Rasmussen Reports believe, “The nation is headed down the wrong track.” They also noted that 58% “expect a worsening economy.”

Donald Trump is a known commodity. Regardless of his personality, brash talk, and mean tweets, he was well on his way to making America great again. He has the track record to back that up. Joe Biden is leading America down the drain and also has a track record to prove it.

Voters will have a choice next November between two known quantities, two track records, and two sets of results. We don’t need to take a flier on someone “clean and articulate” like we did in 2008.

There has never been a clearer choice, two candidates who have both served as president, with records of achievement, or lack of. This is the message the Trump campaign needs to take to American voters next year.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.