Looking Backwards, America. Looking Backwards.

 "The charges are a destructive intervention into the 2024 election, and the potential trial will hang over the race."

"They also make it more likely that the election will be a referendum on Mr. Trump, rather than on Mr. Biden’s economy and agenda or a GOP alternative. This may be exactly what Democrats intend with their charges. Republicans deserve a more competent champion with better character than Mr. Trump. But the indictment might make GOP voters less inclined to provide a democratic verdict on his fitness for a second term. Although the political impact is uncertain, Republicans who are tired of Mr. Trump might rally to his side because they see the prosecution as another unfair Democratic plot to derail him. And what about the precedent? If Republicans win next year’s election, and especially if Mr. Trump does, his supporters will demand that the Biden family be next. Even if Mr. Biden is re-elected, political memories are long. It was once unthinkable in America that the government’s awesome power of prosecution would be turned on a political opponent. That seal has now been broken."

 
Writes the Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal in "A Destructive Trump Indictment/Do prosecutors understand the forces they are unleashing?"