The stakes are high (Gettysburg Times op-ed)

The 2024 presidential election might well be a rematch between President Biden and Donald Trump. While the election is still a year away, both seem to be the presumptive nominees. All presidential elections are important, but this one may be the most consequential of our lives. The contrast between these two men is stark both in terms of their vision for America, and how they think we should achieve this vision. We the voters will be asked to choose between democracy versus authoritarianism. The stakes are that great.

Age may be the only thing these men have in common, and their ages will certainly be an issue in the campaign. President Biden has just turned 81. Mr. Trump will be 78 on election day. Either man, if elected, would be the oldest person to put his hand on the Bible and be sworn in by the Chief Justice. So far, Trump’s increasingly bizarre behavior and frequent fabrications have avoided media scrutiny while Fox plays every Biden stumble as a threat to the world order.

Their experiences growing up and in their careers are vastly different. President Biden grew up in a working-class family and knows what it is like to be economically insecure. He inherited a wealth of wise sayings from his father. Trump grew up in a family that built its wealth renting shabby apartments in whites-only developments and whose father bailed him out when he blew the first fortune he inherited. President Biden has had a successful career in the U.S. Senate, earning a reputation early in his career as one of the most successful legislators ever, before spending eight years as vice president. Mr. Trump had a successful career as a reality show star that added a gloss of success to a business career distinguished until that point by repeated bankruptcies, unpaid bills, and multi-million-dollar legal settlements.

The Associated Press in November 2023 summarized President Biden’s priorities for a second term. One continuing theme is democracy and democratic institutions. This includes voting rights, protecting the ballot box, and protecting government institutions like the Justice Department from political interference.

President Biden’s re-election pitch is “finish the job.” The president has had a string of bipartisan legislative victories including infrastructure projects, public funding of the computer chip industry, clean energy, and reducing prescription drug costs. He will bring back ideas from the 2020 campaign that have not yet been implemented, including making two years of community college tuition free, universal preschool, the expanded child tax credit, and capping the cost of daycare. To pay for these the president proposes raising taxes on the wealthy and large corporations. He wants a minimum tax of 25% on wealthy Americans, a top tax rate of 39.6%, and a corporate tax rate of 28%.

Mr. Trump’s campaign pronouncements have focused on dominance, grievance, and retribution. If elected, Mr. Trump has promised to use the institutions of government to target individuals he perceives as his enemies. The Washington Post reported on November 6, 2023, that these targets include General John Kelly (retired), his former Chief of Staff; William Barr, his former Attorney General; and General Mark Milley (retired), his former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

His supporters who applaud the ideas of “draining the swamp,” fighting “the Deep State,” and locking up the Clintons, Adam Schiff, and Nancy Pelosi should think long and hard about that list, which includes not Chuck Schumer or Merrick Garland, but Trump’s own advisors. The thing about dictators is, you cannot count on them going only after people you do not like. Mr. Trump says he is suffering at the hands of the Deep State FOR you, but in reality, he is only a single gesture from turning ON you for your lack of fealty.

The Brennan Center for Justice also reported that Mr. Trump plans to weaponize the Insurrection Act to target domestic protesters by calling in the Nation’s military to quell dissent. As with the Cabinet and staff positions, he is sure to appoint pliant MAGA sympathizers to military leadership – with perhaps an unprecedented number of vacancies to fill immediately due to Senator Tuberville’s year-long blockade.

In a recent tweet Mr. Trump called for the termination of the Constitution to overturn the 2020 election and reinstate him in power. He wrote, “A massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”

Mr. Trump plans to crack down on immigration. The New York Times recently reported that Trump plans to reimpose banning entry by people from Muslim-majority countries, a measure that would have serious consequences for diplomacy, tourism, and global business. He also plans to deport millions of undocumented workers, gut asylum seeking almost entirely, and set up giant detention camps. This would require massive increases in policing, dragnets in every city and town, and an enormous use of informants. As with Republican proposals to regulate women’s healthcare decisions or to use the military to quell domestic protests that he disapproves of, or to eavesdrop on every classroom in the country, Trump’s proposals often involve monumental increases in the power of government to interfere in our lives.

The 2020 election was decided by 45,000 votes in a handful of battleground states. Pennsylvania is one of those states. A rematch of these two men in 2024 could be that close again. And that is why the stakes are so high.

Leon Reed and Jeff Colvin, residents of Gettysburg, are co-chairs of Gettysburg Democracy For America. The opinions are their own.