As we approach another presidential election year, our country is facing more than its usual share of problems: a floundering economy, skyrocketing debt, rampant crime, a chaotic border, Russian aggression, an increasingly bellicose China and a weakened U.S. military. This is all bad enough; but to make matters worse, the nation seems to be on track to renominate the two worst and weakest presidential candidates in the last 100 years.

It would be a terrible mistake for the American people to put Joe Biden and Donald Trump back on top of their respective tickets. This is especially true when at least one party has so many other qualified, intelligent and capable candidates in the running.

The respective weaknesses of the two leading nominees are well apparent: concerning Trump, his biggest, and most damaging, flaw is his lack of character. He is a narcissist, and any concerns for the country or for the Republican Party are subordinate to concerns for his grandeur. He is a blowhard and a divider, at a time when neither of those traits are helpful. And we cannot forget that, even accounting for the fact that many of the charges leveled at him are politically motivated, Trump is still under indictment for what is, at best, his troublingly irresponsible handling of our nation’s secrets. There is a reason that “good character” was one of the few actual qualifications for president that the Founders delineated in the Constitution.

Even if you choose to overlook that in light of some of the beneficial policies that came of the Trump administration, there remains the fact that he is a loser, in the literal sense. Trump lost reelection in 2020 and cost the GOP control of the Senate that same year. His continued pernicious influence stemmed the anticipated “red wave” of 2022, and he is among the primary reasons that Republicans in Colorado have had their worst electoral showing in Colorado.

As for Biden, the problems could not be more obvious: his incompetency dwarfs that of any president in history, and is evident in the economy, foreign policy, the border, crime, you name it. He is “woke and weak” — he is being dragged, perhaps unwittingly, to the extreme left on any number of issues, and he is dangerously weak on national security and foreign relations. And we cannot ignore his age; the man is simply too old, especially for a job that requires the utmost of mental acuity and which has a tendency to age those that hold it in any case, and it is clearly showing.

Concerning the Democrats, I am not in a position to speak for them. It is clear, however, anecdotally and in looking at polling, that the majority of rank-and-file Democrats do not want Biden as their nominee. And yet, there seems to be nobody willing to step up to challenge him on that side of the aisle. The Democratic Party’s elite have rigged the nominating process so that “Uncle Joe” will have no competition. How insulting to the party faithful.

It is preposterous that in a nation of more than 300 million individuals the best our two political parties can come up with as nominees for our head of state are two has-beens that leave the majority of voters shaking their head in bewilderment that they are being forced to choose between them. No wonder many Americans are looking for a third-party candidate.

As a lifelong committed conservative Republican, this is especially galling for me. The GOP has an impressive bench of intelligent and very electable candidates that could be put up in 2024. Nikki Haley is a strong, impressive young woman who did a remarkable job as a conservative governor of South Carolina, and amassed considerable foreign affairs experience as America’s representative to the ever-dysfunctional United Nations.

Ron DeSantis, a former Navy SEAL, has proven to be one of the best governors in the nation, to where Florida is perhaps the best-run state in the union. Tim Scott is a brilliant senator and orator whose optimism, leadership style, and patriotism are reminiscent of Ronald Reagan; Mike Pence is probably the best qualified individual for the job we have had in years. It is not as though the Republican Party is left with nobody else to take up the mantle.

It is astonishing to me that a country of our size, blessed with such strength, diversity and talent, cannot muster up any better than two old fools who are each dangerously incompetent in their own way. These two aged strawmen are not what America needs heading well into the 21st century. They truly have no clothes!

Americans deserve, and have, much better choices for president in 2024.

Larry Liston is state senator for Colorado Senate District 10.

Sen. Larry Liston 

courtesy Colorado General Assembly