A. J. Kierstead is founder and host of The New England Take and a resident of Concord.

Let’s be serious. If things continue as they are, Trump will be the GOP nominee for president and the barely warm body of Joe Biden will take the presidency. I don’t like it, two-thirds of Republican voters don’t like it, and the entirety of the left doesn’t like it.

Let’s be realistic and dive into the reasons why our democratic process should play out in its current form.

The first and most obvious reason is that Trump is a risky candidate for things outside of the race itself. He will be 78 years old on election day, the inherent age issue is just as likely to be a problem for Biden as for Trump. I understand the virility is incomparable between the two, but the stats are the stats with people hitting 80.

Add in the countless criminal indictments that I can’t be bothered to break down and you would have to be mad to think there isn’t a major risk for the GOP ticket. You don’t want to end up with the equivalent of Harris running.

The second is that a portion of this crew will turn out to be part of a potential Trump administration. Consider the GOP debate as a strange pageant show where you pray the swimsuit portion of the program suffers from something catastrophic before Chris Christie shows up. Vivek is obviously gunning for VP, Haley to go back to the hive of villainy that is the UN.

Lastly, and probably most importantly to the future of Republican politics, the people running for president this cycle will run again. It seems forgotten by many that presidential candidates will run multiple times until they get the funding and name recognition to be a major player.

If I had to guess, that’s why Governor Sununu held on for so long before making any announcements, because if people get in their head that you might be presidential material, in the next cycle they might come knocking with PAC money. With a young group of players like DeSantis and Vivek making it to the debate stage, there is a solid chance of finally seeing new blood on the conservative side of politics. Few are happy with the current state of politics in our nation, but keep your chin up and find a fun weirdo to cheer on for a few months.

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