Robert Reich: A Trump loss in 2024 will show that Americans 'reject fascism' and cherish 'the rule of law'

Ron DeSantis supporters who view him as the GOP's best chance to move on from Donald Trump in 2024 have not been happy about polls released during the second half of July — which find Trump ahead of the far-right Florida governor by 44 percent (Rasmussen), 40 percent (Harvard University/HarrisX) or 29 percent (Quinnipiac) among GOP primary voters.

Trump's legal problems aren't hurting his status as the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner; if anything, GOP voters are rallying around him.

Trump is presently facing two criminal indictments: a 37-count federal prosecution and a 34-count New York State prosecution. And that number may increase.

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Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results are the focus of criminal investigations by special counsel Jack Smith and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis. If Trump is indicted in those two cases, he will be facing four criminal prosecutions.

In a scathing opinion column published on July 24, liberal economist Robert Reich argues that if Trump is the 2024 Republican presidential nominee and loses, it will be a victory for "the rule of law" and a defeat for "fascism."

"As indictments have piled up against him and his poll numbers among Republicans have risen," Reich argues, "Trump's 'final battle' comes into ever sharper focus: It is a battle against the rule of law and democracy. The mega-indictment we have all been waiting for — the indictment against Trump for his attempted coup against the United States — will be announced very soon. Trump is prepared to use it in his final battle."

Reich continues, "Tuesday, on an Iowa radio show, he warned it would be 'very dangerous' if special counsel Jack Smith put him in jail, since his supporters have 'much more passion than they had in 2020.' Unfortunately for the nation, the Republican Party is uniting behind Trump's side of this battle line."

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If Trump is indicted in connection with Smith's post-2020 election/January 6, 2021 probe, Reich emphasizes, the 2024 presidential election will become "more of a referendum on Trump than a referendum on (President Joe) Biden." And a Trump loss will show that Americans "reject fascism."

"The pustule of Trump has been growing since 2016, and the authoritarian impulses underlying this infection have been allowed to fester for decades," warns Reich, who served as secretary of labor in the Clinton Administration and now teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. "Folks, it is finally time to lance this boil. It is time to decidedly rescue democracy and the rule of law."

Reich continues, "It is time to defeat Trump and his enablers who are determined to defy the core values of America. Let the battle begin."

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Read Robert Reich's full opinion column for The Guardian at this link.