As it happened, President Joe Biden, the preferred candidate among the liberal elites, was declared the winner, and the “all clear” went out. Business owners protecting their establishments from arson, vandalism, or looting was no longer necessary. Republicans, after all, don’t typically resort to violence when they’re angry.

Much has happened since the Democrats pulled a senile man over the finish line four years ago. Even as Biden was sworn in, it was clear he was incapable of actual governance. It didn’t matter because he was a mere figurehead. A group of the best and the brightest unelected officials waited in the wings to push the most liberal agenda in history through a Democrat-controlled Congress.

Four years later, not only is America much diminished, but it is closer than ever to becoming a socialist nation. One more term under Democratic leadership, aided by a bureaucracy willing to abandon its integrity and even the rule of law to hold on to power, will take it there.

How did it happen? Although some politicians choose public service because they truly want to make a difference, far too many others see it as a path to power, financial enrichment, or both. Well aware of the corruption that is entrenched within the U.S. government, they are happy to turn a blind eye because the current state of affairs benefits them personally.

In fact, although it’s become the centerpiece of the Democrats’ 2024 campaign, most politicians don’t believe Trump poses an existential threat to our democracy. In July, during a conversation with the Bulwark’s Tim Miller, New York Times columnist Ezra Klein revealed that top Democrats privately admitted to him that Trump is not actually a threat to America’s democracy. 

“I’ve had top Democrats say to me, basically, say something like, ‘I don’t know why all these Democrats who think Donald Trump is an existential threat to democracy are acting the way they are. But the reason I’m acting the way I am is because I don’t think that,’” Klein said.

These Democrats have admitted, he added, that they can “live with Donald Trump winning.”

But that doesn’t mean they won’t go to great lengths to try to stop that from happening. As these lawmakers see it, the only obstacle to the status quo, corrupt as it is, is Trump. He is the disrupter whom they must eliminate. They’ve tried impeaching, slandering, indicting, and even convicting him, but he is still standing and could soon be returning to the White House. 

So, what will happen if Trump wins the election? There will probably be riots. And congressional Democrats, perhaps led by the likes of Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), will exhaust all efforts to disqualify him from serving. 

But hopefully, Trump will return to Washington, D.C., with his eyes wide open. He should surround himself with trustworthy individuals and reinstate the successful policies of his first term that Biden reversed on his first day in office. 

He should purge the leadership from the federal agencies that undermined him (along with some of the rank and file) during his first term and used lawfare against him after he left office.

At a Fox News town hall earlier this month, Trump was asked, “What could you share that you’ve learned from your first time being in the Oval Office for those who are hesitant to vote for you now?”

Trump replied that his administration had been “hit with weaponization. … All of the different Russia, Russia, Russia hoaxes.” 

“The most important thing I found, and you can say this is true in business also, we have to get the right people,” he said. “I didn’t know much about Washington. I was there 17 times in my whole life. And I wasn’t in D.C. very much.”

“But I got to know ’em, and I got to know ’em the hard way. And I know the good ones, the bad ones, the weak ones, the smart ones, the dumb ones. I know ’em all now,” Trump continued.

The bottom line, he said, was to “get the right people.”

“You put the right person and the right group of people at the heads of these massive agencies, you’re going to have tremendous success. And I know now the people better than anyone would know them,” Trump said.

Trump was spot on. As difficult as it may be to believe that the brash billionaire from New York had little or no idea of the traps that had been set for him by the administrative state (or whatever one chooses to call the permanent group of unelected officials who run the government), it was the truth. His unfamiliarity with how things worked in D.C. left him completely unprepared for the injustices that lay ahead. It’s fair to say he was naive. He took advice from those who wanted him to fail and he trusted the wrong people.

But this time around, Trump would be under no illusions. And let’s hope not, because America needs Trump’s leadership now more than ever.

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Elizabeth Stauffer is a contributor to the Washington Examiner and the Western Journal. Follow her on X or LinkedIn.