This much is absolutely certain to me as I watch the 2024 presidential election campaign and its cast of characters play out.

Which is that if a once-great political party is willing to nominate someone who has been indicted four times for felonies against the very government he swore to “defend and protect” then we are in worse shape than I ever imagined.

I say that believing two things. One is that I do not believe Donald J. Trump will be nominated by the Republican Party; the other is that he is nominated, he will go down in flames in a Democratic Party landslide … current poll numbers notwithstanding.

I have seen the polls in Iowa, where the GOP is going conduct its caucus at the beginning of the new year. Polling data show Trump with a sizable lead among Republicans seeking the party nomination. The polls tell me that the MAGA base that Trump courts is energized. The gullible goons who comprise that base cannot — or will not — grasp the reality that their guy could be sentenced to prison before they count the votes in Iowa.

Prosecutors have asked for a January 2024 trial on the indictment stemming from his role in inciting the assault on our government on 1/6. Think about that just a moment. Donald Trump could campaign for the presidency after being convicted of a federal felony crime! Dude could spend the rest of his miserable life in prison!

But at this moment in our nation’s otherwise glorious history, we stand on the verge of a criminal defendant being nominated by a major political party to become POTUS … again, after being impeached twice by the House of Representatives the first time he held the office.

I am shaking my noggin vigorously.