And They're Off, Part III
We segue from the large GOP field to discuss the Democrats and emerging third-party movements. Is "No Labels" for real, and is Michelle Obama lurking in the wings?
Part I is here. Part II, published Wednesday, is here.
It’s interesting how political opposites often build deep friendships. They are excellent studies of civility and the American character. Especially now.
John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were bitter rivals. Jefferson defeated incumbent Adams in 1800 to become our third President. They died on the same day, July 4, 1826, after building a fascinating friendship through a series of brilliant letters to each other, beginning in 1812, facilitated by a mutual friend, Benjamin Rush.
The late US Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) was often considered a hard-charging partisan, but was better remembered in the US Senate as a beloved friend on both sides of the aisle. Kennedy’s most famous cross-aisle friendship was with teetotaling Morman conservative Orrin Hatch (R-UT). A book featured that relationship, “Friend and Foe in the US Senate,” by Ross Baker.
I’m also reminded of the time I attended the Charleston, South Carolina funeral of the famous former segregationist Democrat-turned-Republican US Senator and 1948 “Dixiecrat” presidential nominee, Strom Thurmond, officiated by then-US Senator Joe Biden. Biden was clearly uncomfortable in the role - he still harbored presidential ambitions, obviously - but spoke warmly of his abiding friendship with the evolved and repentant Thurmond.
But such friendships aren’t limited by politics. Princeton University academic Robert George is an iconic banjo-playing conservative law professor and political philosopher. At the same time, the Oklahoma-born West, a Democratic Socialist, and longtime Bernie Saunders surrogate, is his liberal counterpart with a long history of social activism at Harvard, where it got him in trouble, and later at Princeton, where he and George became friends, coauthors of multiple op-eds, and traveling companions. West’s official biography describes his academic career this way:
Dr. West teaches on the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as courses in Philosophy of Religion, African American Critical Thought, and a wide range of subjects -- including but by no means limited to, the classics, philosophy, politics, cultural theory, literature, and music. He has a passion to communicate to a vast variety of publics in order to keep alive the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. – a legacy of telling the truth and bearing witness to love and justice.
West is now running for President, first for the People’s Party but now for the Green Party nomination, whose 2020 nominee appeared on the ballot in 29 states.
And Democrats are not happy. “I think it is worth freaking out about because I think this election is likely to be close,” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) told Axios. “And even if these idiots only get 3%, that could be 3% that throws the Electoral College in the wrong direction.”
US Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) told Politico, “My opinion is exactly the same whether it’s Cornel West or Joe Manchin. Any Democrat who runs an independent or third-party presidential campaign is dramatically helping Republican odds’ of victory. It’s that simple. And unfortunately, I have seen this play before.”
Schatz and Boyle are likely referring to 2016, when many blamed (credited?) Green Party nominee Jill Stein for “taking away” votes that might otherwise have gone to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton that year. “Had voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin cast their ballots for Clinton rather than the Green Party’s Stein, Clinton would be president,” wrote Politico in 2020. Like Ralph Nadar’s candidacy in 2000, then “siphoning” votes for then-Vice President Al Gore, especially in Florida.
It can happen on the GOP side, too. Thirty years ago, Ross Perot captured about 19 percent (and zero electoral votes) in the 1992 general election. Instead, Bill Clinton won with 43 percent of the popular vote (and 370 electoral votes), besting Bush’s 37 percent. Arguably, then-segregationist George Wallace gave us Richard Nixon in 1968 by winning five then-reliably Democratic deep southern states and their electoral votes. We’ll never know, but it’s fun to speculate.
West is no Jill Stein or Howie Hawkins, the two previous Green Party nominees. West is a renowned, respected, intelligent, and highly articulate intellect. Bernie Sanders chose West as one of five delegates to help write the Democratic Party Platform in 2020. He won’t win, of course, but he will challenge Democrats, running on many of the same signature issues (social justice, eliminating student debt, “health care for all,” etc). He’s also running against American support for the war in Ukraine and disbanding NATO. If West successfully captures the Green Party nomination - practically a given - he can siphon off votes that otherwise might go to Joe Biden (or stay home). Or, arguably, drive more progressive voters to the polls that help down-ballot Democrats. This can be cut in a couple of ways. Or he could bomb altogether.
He would be an exciting and entertaining addition to any presidential debate if he could hurdle whatever polling thresholds the media puts in his way. In last Sunday's New York Post interview, West took dead aim at Biden.
West, 70, accused Biden of spurring mass incarceration among minorities because of the tough-on-crime federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act Biden sponsored as a senator in 1994. The bill authorized the hiring of 100,000 new police officers and allocated $9.7 billion for prisons.
“Well, I think you’ll think Joe Biden contributed to a crime against humanity when he became the architect of the mass incarceration regime in the 1990s,” said West, 70, referring to the tough-on-crime Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act Biden sponsored as a senator in 1994. The bill authorized the hiring of 100,000 new police officers and allocated $9.7 billion for prisons.
Another challenge for Democrats is the burgeoning “No Labels” movement, which is becoming a third party in its own right and working to establish ballot access in all 50 states. That’s a tall challenge, but the movement that former US Senator Joe Lieberman (D/I-CT) launched years ago appears well-funded and staffed with interesting bipartisan support. They’ve not committed to fielding a presidential candidate.
Lieberman recently authored an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News heralding broad support for a middle-of-the-road alternative to a Trump-Biden replay.
For over a decade, the organization I co-founded, No Labels, has stood for bipartisan solutions to our country’s problems and worked to bring Democrats and Republicans together. This election cycle, seeing the broad discontent with a rematch of President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, No Labels decided to go to work to get on the ballot in all 50 states for a potential bipartisan unity ticket. This is an “insurance policy” for America, to broaden the choices for voters if that is necessary in 2024.
Abraham Lincoln created such a choice in America in 1860. Emmanuel Macron did it in France in 2017. Polls now show we are at a crossroads and, if the parties don’t wake up, as many as 60% of America’s voters would consider a moderate, independent choice.
Actually, President Lincoln didn’t create a bipartisan unity ticket until his 1864 reelection, when he chose the frequently inebriated Democratic US Senator from the then-rebel state of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson as his running mate, replacing sober Maine Republican Hannibal Hamlin. Lieberman continued:
The partisan groups trying to stop No Labels are now circulating a poll they took that, remarkably, disproves their own spoiler charges. It shows an unnamed No Labels candidate would draw 21% against Trump and Biden despite their universal name recognition. That’s within striking distance of the 34% needed to win and would qualify us for national TV debates.
Lieberman wasn’t kidding when he said partisan groups are trying to stop No Labels (Yes Labels?), as the Washington Post reported that former Democratic US Rep. and presidential candidate Richard Gephardt (D-MO) is launching a counteroffensive with help from Democratic consultant Greg Schneiders and anti-Trump GOP media consultant Stuart Stevens, both veterans of presidential campaigns.
Manchin, a Maserati-driving West Virginia Democrat who turns 76 next month, is still cagey about his political ambitions. His current Senate term ends next year, and incumbent Republican Gov. Jim Justice holds a substantial polling lead in the increasingly GOP-leaning Mountaineer State. Manchin, who lives on a houseboat (“Almost Heaven”) anchored at Washington, DC’s wharf along the Potomac River, never rules out a run for President in 2024. There are plenty of Republicans who might run with him, including former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan or former Utah Governor and ex-Ambassador to Russia John Huntsman.
For their part, the No Labels organization released a 72-page “Common Sense” booklet that read more like poll-driven platitudes than 30 policy proposals. They sort of endorse a limit on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, consistent with the Mississippi law that was the basis for the Dobbs decision by the US Supreme Court that struck down Roe v. Wade, which would affect about five percent of abortions in the US. Bold!
Without specifics, they seem to embrace “fairness” in women’s sports (no biological men? Not clear) and prohibit sexuality and gender instruction to young children in elementary school (what ages or grades? What kind of instruction?). They raise more questions than answers.
Meanwhile, with Democratic panic about Joe Biden’s ability to function competently or Kamala Harris’ capacity to succeed him, two prominent Democrats, maybe more, are lurking just off stage: California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former First Lady Michelle Obama. The latter sends Democratic hearts aflutter since she would clear the field and pose the biggest threat to the GOP in 2024.
No words from the “Forward” Party that former Democratic presidential and New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang supposedly started, but reportedly they’re about to field their first candidates, at least in Maryland. None for President, apparently.
Michelle Obama, for her part, has expressed no interest in a partisan political career and seems more intent on launching a food company. On the other hand, Newsom chomps at the bits, picking fights he can’t win with Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Sure, there are announced Democrats Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a trial lawyer and the Alex Jones (“Infowars”) of The Left, and author/spiritualist Marianne Williamson. Both attract up to 40 percent support in national polling among Democrats, nothing to sneeze at. Some Republicans are enamored by Kennedy’s challenge of Big Pharma and vaccines, which he considers inherently unsafe - all vaccines. He has a long history as a litigious environmental lawyer (he won a big money lawsuit against Monsanto over the alleged carcinogenicity of their herbicide, “Round-Up”) and makes interesting accusations about drinking water quality. He partners with Scientologists and takes fringy science views. He waded into anti-semitic territory last weekend and is now trying to walk it back. I don’t take his candidacy very seriously.
As for charting a middle-of-the-road course, I’m reminded of something populist former Democratic Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower (D-TX) once said: “Ain’t nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.” Then again, there’s no doubt that many Americans are fed up with the extremes they see controlling the two major political parties. A Trump-Biden rematch, which few want, might be the impetus for a political surprise or two in 2024. While Cornel West may draw votes from Biden, a bipartisan “No Labels” ticket might be interesting, depending of course on who leads it and how many state ballots they make can get on. Watch this space.