Good is possible. We salute it, sing about it. It is called the United States of America.
Perfect is not possible. Full stop!
“Our way or the highway?” In America, happily, the highway is the next election. Not banishment.
So here we are facing seven months to choose the next President. The 2024 election campaign is not likely to be an inspiring one—certainly, the run-up is not promising.
President Biden should have invited competition to find his successor. He didn’t and now he concentrates on running against Trump, and that is his theme. In the meantime, some of his allies are concentrating on taking down Robert F Kennedy Jr (RFK Jr.). Fear of third-party vote siphoning has provoked a companion campaign.
The Republican side, whoops the Donald Trump side, is trying to use revenge as a creative weapon. I say the Trump side because when the leader trashes the Party’s heroes and declares all those who won’t bend their knees RINOs, it is his Party. And his strategists—they too are looking in the rear view window.
This is an election cycle in which one goal, at least people of goodwill would say, should be some measure of national harmony. A cycle during which voters should be confronted with the huge disharmony tax we are paying. Yes tax. Decisions not made. Or, decisions made to prolong debate until the next election. Delay and uncertainty are risk factors that make almost every big decision a taxing one. And I mean money among other negatives.
Here are just a few. Higher interest rates, fractured alliances, failure at the border, stalled military upgrades, and perhaps most distressing, the elimination of United from the USA. We should not need a demilitarized zone like the one that divides the two Koreas. We should argue and then we should find some level of common ground always understanding the value of United.
Now, lest I fail to stir up sufficient controversy, let’s turn Left or Right (your choice) and assess the gathering force in the rearview mirror—Robert F Kennedy Jr.
RFK Jr. is controversial, and so are Biden and Trump.
RFK Jr. is especially attacked for his controversial stands on COVID-19. So, too, Biden and Trump.
I could go down a long list of public or political sins and ask who should be most careful if he chooses to throw the first stone.
If I were an ally of RFK Jr., and I am not, I would be gleeful about this opportunity—this fractured context—for a reintroduction. Look at the polls. Biden and Trump are known by everyone and both are unpopular outside their bases (well below majorities). And those things that make them unpopular are unlikely to change before Election Day, 2024.
So here we are, suffering as a nation from disharmony taxes, and the new (or not so new candidate) leads off his campaign with a gauzy political ad calling for unity. I suspect this is an issue that might take hold among undecided voters, and the only candidate who can be its beneficiary is RFK Jr.
Who knows, maybe there will be a preclusive event—one that changes the head of a major Party ticket. Such an occurrence is doubtful. What is not doubtful is extreme rancor—an assault on United. And while one or another, or so polls say, will squeak out a narrow victory there will be a blizzard, literally or figuratively, on Inauguration Day.
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.
David A Turner says
Finally, an article surfacing the possibility of a Kennedy election that is not just a hit job packed with lots and lots and lots of COVID “evidence” against Kennedy and multiple assurances from the DNC that a third candidate can never win.
I appreciate your open-minded perspective. It’s reasonable. Perhaps like you, I am undecided. I’m not an anti-vaxxer, nor am I unrealistic about a huge change possibly coming in American politics this November. Like you, I worked in the Reagan/Bush, and Bush Administrations. I edited their national magazine — MANAGEMENT. Both myself and my family are known to the Bush family.
I commend all readers to Ms. Meryl Kornfield’s similar amazing editorial in today’s Washington Post — she even gives ink to actual, rank-and-file Kennedy supporters or possible supporters. A potential truth — pounding at the door — is being heard by journalists in publications I trust.
We just can’t vote again for Biden or Trump. And no, independents are not insane nor on the spectrum (at least anymore so than Biden and Trump gung-hos — which means a lot of us probably are off center).
More important, we outnumber Biden committeds. And Trump committeds. Most voters don’t want those two. Check out the polls. Might not this be a great year for a third candidate? Can we at least discuss it without being shushed down?
Finally, like Mr. Sikes, I tire of this national anger. A third party presidency could help assuage it. We don’t have to live in this mire of left/right seething. I guarantee you neither a Biden nor Trump presidency helps with that most pressing concern for our future.
Chris Gordon says
“Check out the polls.” Okay. In the NPR/PBS/Marist poll out today Kennedy got 11%. In the Economist/YouGov poll Kennedy got 2%. Those look like the numbers of a spoiler to me. If we had ranked choice voting he MIGHT have a shot. But not this year.
Clark Bjorke says
Theodore Roosevelt got 16.6% of the popular vote in 1912. If Teddy Roosevelt, one of the most dynamic Presidents in our history can only get 16.6% as a third party candidate how do you expect RFK, Jr, trading on his father’s and uncle’s names and his off kilter policy statements to have anything but a spoiler effect? No, he will not suddenly be anointed as a candidate of either major party. RFK Jr. is fooling himself and you.
David A Turner says
CLARK, Roosevelt was darn good, but the last time an insurgent candidate beat the traditional two parties was even more auspicious. I don’t think the brink of the Civil War quite matches today’s political angst. But that’s when it happened and it’s currently close enough to those furious times. It’s been 164 years of the same two parties ever since. That’s not long enough for you? You reasonably might ask, must now be the time when Biden could be so close? The actual polls tell us a majority seek a third candidate.
“Shush, shush, RFKII is only a spoiler effect” is not valid discussion. It’s a strategy based on killing discussion, probably motivated mostly on the predilection of the person arguing it. You do make a valid point about the fairness of sons of famous men anointed. And yet history answers your point resoundingly — not in your favor. It’s a plus for RFKII, no doubt and so what. Look, I’m not for him, yet. But I want more than shush, shush at this early stage. Let’s discuss policies. What does Kennedy think about shutting down the border, about demanding Hamas surrender for Gaza’s humanitarian reasons? I’m all ears. Thanks for your comment.
Deirdre LaMotte says
RFK, Jr., is the best gift to Trump imaginable. As a women who values women’s rights, and abortion rights, one should flee him like the plague, since a vote for him is a de facto vote for Trump, the greatest enemy of forward thinking, and intelligent women ever to be president.
JR is an embarrassment to his family…in fact ALL his family. His years as a heroin addict affected not only his brain but
perhaps caused the cruelty he showed to his ex wives. He and Trump should never be closer than 1 mile from the Oval. Maybe these puny narcissistic men can both sail off into the sunset together and give our democracy a break?
For anyone to even think of voting for him is delusional.