With the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary looming, more than the traditional silly season in politics has begun. A dangerous year is about to unfold, with dangers to follow. Not since 1860 has the nation faced a presidential election so consequential and so fraught with perils.

Joe Biden plans to kick off his reelection bid at Valley Forge. Said Biden’s campaign manager, via CBS News:

"The threat that Donald Trump posed in 2020 to American democracy has only grown more dire in the years since," Chavez Rodriguez said, adding the Biden reelection campaign is being run like the "fate of our democracy depends on it -- because it does."

To hell with the economy, border, and crime. The mission in 2024 is ending the threat that Trump poses to our glorious republic. If that doesn’t raise the stakes, what does?

But Biden is facing some strong headwinds in his quest to save democracy from Trump’s clutches. Voters are telling doddering Joe to take a hike. 

In a recent Fox News analysis, Democrat pollster Doug Schoen compares Biden to Jimmy Carter, both a year before general elections. The comparison is downright dismal for Democrats. Schoen believes that Democrats better hunt up a new standard-bearer. But who? Smarmy used car salesman Gavin Newsom? Kamala, a genuine birdbrain? Ah, yes, election rigging compensates -- unless the vote margins are too great.  

Joe’s Valley Forge speech will rail against Trump the scheming insurrectionist and White supremacists, who, one assumes, are Trump’s muscle, as the KKK was once Democrat muscle. Now, Democrats lean on BLM, Antifa, and the Deep State.

Are legions of America First voters Trump’s White supremacist army? Probably -- to Biden’s puppeteers. Yet, where are these hordes of marauding White supremacists? Perhaps they’re running roughshod over the Hamptons, Martha’s Vinyard, and Marin County? Because they’re mighty scarce in Topeka, Ithaca, and Ocala.    

Biden’s speech shouldn’t be fobbed off as just red meat thrown to delusional progressives. His handlers are sending a loud signal that Trump must be denied the presidency. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Trump is the new Hitler, Hillary Clinton has proclaimed. Aren’t any lengths justified stopping this fiend? 

What measures are Democrats and their allies prepared to take to stop Trump cold?

Tucker Carlson isn’t hesitant to say, though he avoids mentioning Democrats.

Carlson is convinced that there’s no limit to what the other side will do to prevent Trump from ever again stepping foot in the White House, except in chains for a photo-op. He made his remarks to Dan Bongino on Bongino’s podcast in December.

Per BPR Politics & Business,

“I mean, just chart it out,” he told former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino. “In the case of Trump, they started with protests. They moved to impeachment. Now they’re at indictment. None of it has worked. What’s next? What could possibly be next?”

“If you felt and you really believed, and a lot of them do, that the worst thing that could happen to the country and more specifically to you in the professional class is to have Donald Trump as president, and everything you have tried has failed, and they have been accelerating steps, protests, impeachment, indictment,” he explained. “How many more arrows do you have in your quiver? And what’s the next one?”

“And of course, it’s assassination,” Carlson stated. “And assassination happens around the world.”

The thing about assassinating Trump is that the “other side” better have covered their tracks thoroughly. Even a hint that they killed the Republican presidential nominee would, well, trigger civil war, a hot one. Maybe they just don’t care. 

Steve Bannon spoke in a similar vein as Carlson.    

At a recent Human Events strategy session hosted by Jack Posobiec, Bannon summed 2024 as “Nobody knows nothing.” How the election turns out is guesswork. There are just too many forces at work and too many unknowns.

Per Bannon, “dark forces out there have made a decision.” Forget vox populi. The people’s will takes a backseat to driving globalist tyranny forward. These dark forces “will never” allow Trump to return to the White House. They know it’s “game over” for them if Trump becomes president. Trump learned much from his first term. The forces arrayed against him are malicious. They intend to end the American experiment in liberty. He isn’t aiming at taking prisoners. 

Said Bannon: “One side is going to win; one side is going to lose.” Yep, there’s no difference-splitting. It’s a zero-sum game. While our side fights for liberty, the other side fights for its power and prerogatives. Never underestimate the power lust and self-righteousness driving those dark forces.

If assassination seems like a tall order, what about other schemes to keep Trump from reaching the White House?

Why not riots like 2020, though on a much broader scale than 2020? If you want Trump, you’ll get mayhem -- in your community or soon enough. Maybe you should rethink your vote for him?  

What about declaring a national emergency? Make something up about the Russians or a virus. Maybe White supremacists in red MAGA caps are emerging from their hiding places. A few impressive false-flag events might do the trick. Uncle Sam will need to round up these miscreants and their maximum leader, Donald Trump.

Arrest Trump for plotting another insurrection. Insurrection must be quelled! No pussyfooting like January 2021 at the Capitol.

“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime,” said Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s secret police chief and deputy premier, and, no doubt, a role model for Merrick Garland and his stable of DoJ persecutors.   

But let’s say that through the grace of God the dark forces are unable to stop Trump. He beats the cheat, successfully negotiates a perilous interregnum, and assumes office next January. With so much hanging in the balance, does anyone expect the other side to slink off? Not with so much on the line. Trump’s DoJ -- overhauled -- will make the pursuers the pursued. Rightly so. 

Or let’s say that feeble old Joe is maneuvered into another term. As Molly Hemingway explained after the 2020 presidential contest, Democrats and their patrons engaged in multiple levels of chicanery to beat Trump. Not all of it was illegal, but all of it was interlocking. Despite the full court press, Trump nearly won in a squeaker.

If Joe’s health fails, or his poll numbers keep tanking, Democrats might dredge up Gavin Newson or give Kamala a go. They may be arrogant enough to believe that manipulating elections in battleground states would even elect Dylan Mulvaney.

As Steve Bannon said, “Nobody knows nothing” -- other than 2024 is loaded with hazards, increasing tensions, and stoked passions. Hope for the best, but damn well prepare for the worst.

J. Robert Smith can be found at Gab, @JRobertSmith. He also blogs at Flyover. He’s returned to X. His X handle is @JRobertSmith1.

Image: North Charleston