“When, as now, concerns become sufficiently serious, those with bad ideas will always win out over those with no ideas.” Larry Summers
“….if you’re going to worship me you’d better know who you are worshiping.” Joni Mitchell
Entitlement, the human kind, is so often the underlying story—men and sometimes women believing their own publicists. The gathering hubris is often tragic.
The early death of a rock star from a drug overdose. The divorce of seemingly inseparable celebrities. The wealthy who prey on the weak to become even more wealthy. The Machiavellian politician who eventually turns on all but the sycophantic.
Creatives of all sorts—do not find material in short supply. And we can’t help ourselves—acts of betrayal make compelling stories. But what is the effect on society as a whole?
Our democratically led and capitalist supplied nation depends on us. We get to form political parties to help us organize and make choices. And we get to decide which suppliers will make our household goods or the automobiles we drive.
But all is not well in paradise. We, as consumers, fight back when a failure to do so hurts us directly. We have a broad and deep set of laws that protect us from shoddy goods or tainted food or failed banks or concentration of power.
Yet, if we look at how we organize our public affairs (politics), we have not only yielded to concentration of power we have abetted it. We have a duopoly (only two providers). The last new political party was the Republican; it replaced the Whigs in 1855.
Now, the last thing you want to read or I want to write is a treatise on America’s political organizations and the waxing and waning of the two-party construct. So let me cut to the chase.
America is weakened by its reliance on two political parties and 21st Century political tactics and their costs have overwhelmed the prospects of gifted candidates and the convergence of good ideas. Political parties and candidates protect themselves from more independent-minded people by making it hard for a new Party to get on the ballot while kissing-up to the wealthy. Campaigns today are outrageously expensive and without seven figure donations a run for the presidency is Quixotic.
While early polling is often misleading, it is nonetheless taken as prophetic by many in the media and the donor class. Today’s early polling says we will be confronted in 2024 with a replay of 2020. We will be forced to choose between a diminished incumbent with an unpopular running mate and a former President whose principal campaign tactic is to sow political and societal division. This, pollsters tell us, will be our choice to lead the most complex and consequential nation in the world. Really? Do we know who we have put on a pedestal? What people or ideas we are worshipping?
Yet, the self-intoxicated whose daily occupation is politics are incredulous at the prospect of a third-party candidate for President. Democrats in particular recoil at the thought believing such a candidacy would bleed votes from Joe Biden electing Donald Trump. I will spare you the calculations other than to point out that in a recent Gallup poll 49% self-identified as Independent. No wonder!
I am in that number. I don’t favor ice cream shops that only serve two flavors. And if Biden and Trump are my only choices, it is as if I am offered only licorice or bubblegum flavors.
How long do you think the two-flavor ice cream shop would remain in business? Americans favor competition and know that both the reality and threat of competition promises quality goods and services for reasonable prices.
While there are a few niche parties with some ballot access (Libertarian and Green Parties, for example), there is some movement toward ballot access by an organization called No Labels. It has now qualified for the Presidential ballot in 2024 in four states. When asked whether it has national ambitions its spokesperson was coy:
According to an NPR news report, quoting its lead strategist Ryan Clancy: “No Labels says it’s “too early to know” whether a Biden-Trump rematch would lead the group to nominate a so-called “unity ticket.” No Labels says it will rely on “rigorously analyzed polling data” to determine whether most Americans “want an alternative to the major party presidential nominees,” and whether the group sees “a viable path” to winning election.”
Well, that is something but not much. Political movements are led by people of passion not “rigorously analyzed polling data.” Yet, it is still early. Indeed, it is early enough that there is still time for the 51% who identify in one of the political parties to awaken. Are Biden and Trump the best your talent pool has to offer? If so, bankruptcy is in order.
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
James Nick says
So what exactly is wrong with President Biden?
In just two years he:
Signed the Inflation Reduction Act that among many other things lowers drug costs for seniors with Medicare (eg, $35 a month for insulin) and provides tax credits to incentivize industries and utilities to move to green, renewable energy.
Signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most consequential federal gun safety bill in decades The law even provides roughly $10 billion in funding for mental healthcare, something conservatives insist is at the root of our gun violence problem.
Signed the CHIPS and Science Act that is intended to dramatically increase domestic microchip manufacturing.
Signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
Signed the Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act expanding health care coverage for more than 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxins while serving.
Signed the Respect for Marriage Act into law protecting marriages between same-sex and interracial couples at the federal level
Is leading the global alliance that is supporting Ukraine and provides funding to help a democratic country defend itself against Russia’s invasion.
Oversaw the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, that needs to be renewed every five years and had previously lapsed in 2019.
Nominated and had confirmed the first Black woman to serve on the US Supreme Court.
But even above and beyond all this, without a doubt President Biden’s most important accomplishment is that every day he wakes up in the White House is one less day donald trump doesn’t.
So what’s the problem? If you’re not a Democrat these accomplishments may not be your cup of tea but it’s not because President Biden is ineffective.
All I ever hear about is people going on about his age. Why is that? He’s only 3-1/2 years older than the current frontrunner in polls for the Republican nomination. Someone needs to explain how age is a factor here.
Maybe you point to inflation. But Inflation is a global problem caused mainly by post-pandemic disruptions and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The EU inflation rate is currently running about 6.9% compared to about 5% in the US.
Or maybe it’s just that President Biden has shown he can’t walk on water or raise the dead. If that’s your problem, you need to recalibrate your expectations.
As for Mr Sike’s plea for more choices, color me surprised. Surprised that a veteran Washington insider would even go there. Let’s say a third party presidential candidate were to somehow prevail by some bizarre turn of events. How on earth would he or she ever get anything done in congress? They would have no allies. The two major parties can’t cooperate with one another now even when we are a hair’s breadth away from causing a global economic disaster.
Like they do to one another now, both parties would just train their comnbined firepower on any third party interloper and undermine and sabotage any initiative coming out of the White House. They would be a powerless figurehead.
As always, to vote for a third party candidate is to throw away your vote.
Deirdre LaMotte says
Beautifully said. Any third party would split the anti-Tump majority; his cult members would follow him over a cliff, and are going nowhere.
We have our current Supreme Court thanks to Jill Stein
and the clueless ones who voted for her. Add James
Comet in and that created a disaster for our democracy.
Bob Moores says
I’ll start by quoting Voltaire: “The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
Then I’ll express my 100% agreement with Mr. Nick, except I would add to his list of Biden accomplishments the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the economic stimulus package that helped us recover from the pandemic.
A viable third party is an attractive hope, but it not realistic given the politics of our day and the current ideology of our Supreme Court which virtually guarantees that superior funding will always determine the winner.
Yes, a third party vote is not only a wasted vote, it’s a vote that helps the most despicable, corrupt, self-centered person ever to occupy the White House (Nixon was a saint by comparison).
Our national priority must be to never let Trump set foot in the White House again.
Don E. Itall says
Yes, President Biden has been such a success…
The Biden administration shifted away from this strategy. It encouraged an increase in green energy projects at the expense of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. These renewable energy sources are a long way from meeting global energy needs. These moves made the U.S. and its allies more dependent on Russian oil and natural gas.
Security at the southern border has been an ongoing disaster, though one barely given coverage by the legacy media.
Biden’s shameful withdrawal from Afghanistan was certainly one of the low points of his presidency and one of the lowest points of American foreign policy since the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War. I know, I was there.
Biden tried to force private employers and other organizations with over 100 or more employees to enforce a vaccine mandate, despite saying that he didn’t think it was exactly constitutional.
American cities have experienced an explosion of violent crime since the summer of 2020. This has been aided and abetted by Democratic policies of catch and release and no-bail. It’s a trend that shows no sign of abating. In December, ABC News reported that a dozen U.S. cities had set homicide records in 2021.
In July 2022, Biden said inflation would be a temporary problem that his administration had a handle on. In December, inflation hit 7%, the highest it has been since 1982.
Violent crime is spinning out of control, but the Justice Department clearly doesn’t see that as the real threat to this country. No, the real threat is parents who disagree with what’s happening in their local schools.
Yes, such a success!