The Republicans’ 2024 strategy against Joe Biden has been crystal clear since the first day of his presidency — make the world seem as chaotic and dangerous as possible and then argue that the 80-year-old President is too old and infirm to protect Americans from that chaos and danger. This is why every Trump speech, Republican ad, and Fox News broadcast paints a picture of America that could easily be mistaken for a scene from Mad Max. Danger in the streets, skyrocketing crime, chaos at the border, and increasing threats abroad are all part of an effort to scare the living daylights out of Americans and play on their concerns about the President’s age. Their thesis: the more unsafe and unmoored people feel, the less likely they are to vote for Joe Biden. Or put another way, the more likely voters are to cast aside their concerns about Trump’s criminality and support the candidate that they view (irrationally) as stronger and more energetic.

To date, that strategy has been working. Most people think the country is going in the wrong direction. More Americans are expressing concern about Biden’s age, and Trump has a slight edge in hypothetical general election polls.

The events of this past week, however, demonstrate a fatal flaw in that strategy. The more consequential the moment, the less likely voters are to hand over the wheel of the ship to a completely unserious party led by an erratic criminal without the slightest interest in or capacity to govern...