12/22/23
By: Copeland Jacobs, Staff Writer
Welcome to the second installment of my start-to-finish coverage of the 2024 presidential election and related events. The Associated Press reports Donald Trump pressured Michigan officials not to certify the 2020 election results, according to a recorded phone call. Trump is being indicted in Fulton County, Georgia, for similar charges.
Ado About Much Nothing
Despite a never-ending deluge of headlines- McCarthy’s ouster from the speakership, Santos’ removal from Congress, the Biden impeachment inquiry, and the Tuberville military promotion blockade- according to AP, Congress can look back on 2023 with little to show and was described by AP among the most do-nothing sessions in recent history. More drama equals less legislation, though per the same report, the American Enterprise Institute’s Phillip Wallach said Americans think so little of Congress, “the bare minimum seems like a passing grade.”
The primaries continue
A recent AP article suggests Donald Trump is considering ending his abstention from debates. He was quoted as saying he would debate Joe Biden and any Republican challenger after the New Hampshire primary, provided they are a serious rival.
In contrast, ABC’s election page doesn’t even list Joe Biden’s highest-profile competition for the Democratic nomination, Representative Dean Phillips, yet now-independent candidate RFK Jr. and Marianne Williamson, neither of which have held office, are featured on the website. Bear in mind Kennedy isn’t backed by a party, and the highlights of Williamson’s resume are knowing Oprah Winfrey and an unsuccessful bid in the 2020 Democratic nomination, which went to the once and likely future frontrunner, Biden.
I can’t exactly remember how the agreement for aspiring Republican nominees to support the winner was worded, but a line spoken by the Steward of Gondor in Return of the King, “With your left hand you would use me as a shield against Mordor, and with your right hand you would seek to supplant me,” is close enough to the substance of the deal, a common occurrence in politics, like Bernie Sanders’ endorsement of Joe Biden after losing to him in the 2020 Democratic primary.
This is precisely what AP reports the other Republican hopefuls doing after the Colorado State Supreme Court pulled frontrunner Donald Trump’s name from the ballot. Even his most critical rival for the Republican nomination, Chris Christie, said it wasn’t appropriate to remove Trump from the ballots and would prefer seeing him defeated in an election. Per NBC, Ron DeSantis criticized Trump’s “blood” language, but Trump’s long, well-documented history of incendiary language and his rivals’ need to not alienate the Trump base will probably check any significant Republican speaking strongly against him.
As covered in articles aplenty, Trump’s competitors have assiduously refrained from criticizing his four criminal indictments, losing the popular vote twice and the electoral vote in 2020. This again illustrates the degree to which politics is grossly unpopular. Trump isn’t well-liked outside his base, but Joe Biden, who still leads the Democratic field with token opposition, isn’t popular either.
Third wheels spinning
Given the wretched unpopularity of either major party’s likely candidates, third-party candidates, a perishingly rare sight in the American two-party system, are gaining media attention. They are two progressives, Jill Stein and Cornell West, a conspiracy theorist, Kennedy, RFK Jr., and No Labels.
According to an NBC piece, No Labels is angling to provide “a third-party presidential unity ticket,” or a “coalition government,” which are routine in European parliamentary governments, where more than two parties compete for influence but are unheard of in America. I recently watched the documentary series The World at War, and the formation of Winston Churchill’s wartime unity government, including Conservative and Labour MPs, was covered.
I don’t have to dredge up much evidence to how poorly third parties usually perform in American elections. The American Presidency Project’s statistics showed one of the few sizable third-party bids for the presidency, ex-Republican Theodore Roosevelt on the Progressive Party ticket in 1912, split the Republican vote and delivered the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, who raked in 81.9% of the electoral vote with only 41.8% of the popular vote.
Next week- it’s the economy
Next week, I begin an exhaustive exploration of the leading candidates’ platforms in previous elections with parallels to the upcoming 2024 election, starting with the platform formerly known as Bidenomics and featuring Trumponomics, Kenndynomics, DeSantisnomics, Haleynomics, Westnomics, Steinomics, and Kennedynomics.
Author: Tracy Sanders
