Jim writes:
While the No Labels candidate is extremely unlikely to win the presidency, the levels of dissatisfaction and disaffection in the electorate have to be at least comparable to the conditions of 1992, when H. Ross Perot won 19 percent of the vote nationally.
While there’s no combination of a Republican and a Democrat that will be perfect, you can envision some reasonably well-known combination of officials running on a simple message of, “We’re not senile, we’re not geriatric, and we’re not insane. How about it, America?”
I agree. I agree that “the levels of dissatisfaction and disaffection in the electorate have to be at least comparable to the conditions of 1992.” As I wrote last week, I increasingly get the feeling that the two parties think that the American people are bluffing when they say that they hate both candidates. They’re not. Yes, most voters are going to fall in line, but not everyone will. If, indeed, “some reasonably well-known combination of officials” decide to “[run] on a simple message of, ‘We’re not senile, we’re not geriatric, and we’re not insane. How about it, America?’” I can see those officials doing quite well.
In politics, there is only so far that cajoling will get you — especially when what you are offering up is flaming garbage. Donald Trump is flaming garbage. So is Joe Biden. There is not going to be some grand epiphany in which a contrite American public decides that it loves its two choices after all. Given the scale of their predicament, the obvious play for both parties will be to insist that the other party’s candidate is more garbage than theirs. But, if there are more than two people in the race, that doesn’t work half as well, does it?
Ideally, we need a pair of young-ish, cogent-ish, morally upstanding aspirants who have experience in both politics and in the private sector, and who are prepared to take it to both Trump and Biden without holding back for one moment. If they’re out there, they should run without hesitation. Not in three decades has “None of the Above” had a better moment.