cawacko
Well-known member
Opinion piece from the Journal. Obviously the chance of a No Label candidate winning the Presidency is essentially none. Over time that could change on Day 1 it isn't going to happen. That said, several thoughts.
It seems rather contradictory to complain about the state of our democracy while working to keep the duopoly in place. It's speaking out of both sides of the mouth. Why do people assume this would hurt Joe Biden? Is it a tactic acknowledgement that people don't like him and would only vote for him because of Trump, and if given a third alternative would stay away from Biden?
Polls show large numbers of people don't want a Trump-Biden rematch. Yet that's likely what we'll get.
(and to address what is coming, that Trump is such a threat we can't "afford" to possibly have another candidate is the ultimate cop out. Every election we are told is the most important of our lifetime. Every candidate is a threat to democracy. Before he started to slide there were articles saying DeSantis is worst than Trump. Point being this excuse would be used every election. To me it misses the forest for the trees. Because of the nature of the system we end up with candidates we do not like and are where we are today. Allow a platform like No Labels to present itself and maybe things will change. But that's scary to people I guess.)
Democrats Try to Knock Out No Labels
They want to engineer a Biden-Trump rematch by killing an alternative.
Every poll shows that Americans are all but screaming at the two political parties to offer a presidential choice other than a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The group No Labels has been working to get ballot access for an alternative to meet that market demand, but Democrats in particular are trying to kill the effort in the crib.
President Biden said in a rare recent interview that No Labels has “a democratic right” to do this, but “it’s going to help the other guy.” Now comes a Super Pac trying to raise millions of dollars to assail No Labels, according to a fundraising pitch to prospective donors. What do these folks have against democracy?
Citizens to Save Our Republic, or CSOR, wants donations “to build bipartisan support for a campaign to get No Labels to stand down,” its solicitation email says. “If No Labels moves forward with a third-party effort we will wage a vigorous campaign in swing states, including millions of dollars in advertising, to show voters that No Labels equals Trump and the end of our democracy.”
So a group trying to give voters a democratic alternative is somehow a threat to democracy? We’ve repeatedly keelhauled Mr. Trump for his dereliction on Jan. 6, 2021, his fraud delusions, and much else, but it’s strange to say democracy will end if voters in 2024 cast ballots and elect whomever they want. Perhaps the hyperbole is no surprise, since CSOR looks like a Democratic operation. Its frontman is Dick Gephardt, who spent nearly three decades in the House and ran for President in 1988 and 2004.
Truth in labeling would be to call CSOR the Coalition to Save an Old Retiree, namely Mr. Biden. What the group wants, it says, is to “make the 2024 election a clean referendum on democracy, with one pro-democracy candidate running one-on-one against Donald Trump, the anti-democracy candidate.” It’s doubtful that Mr. Gephardt and company would breathe a sigh of relief for democracy’s sake if Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley ended up as the GOP nominee.
A slide deck to donors lays out the CSOR proposal: Raise $3 million as a budget through December. Try to persuade potential No Labels candidates, including Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Larry Hogan, to rule out the idea. If No Labels picks a presidential ticket anyway, then the plan is to raise millions more and go to war.
CSOR cites private polling that says a three-way race in 2024 would break 40% for Mr. Trump, 39% for Mr. Biden, and 21% for No Labels. In that survey, the hypothetical alternative took 13 points from Mr. Biden and only eight from Mr. Trump. In 2020, the slide deck adds, Mr. Biden won five key swing states by 1.06 points, on average. According to CSOR’s polling, a third party “could cost Biden an average of 5.6 points in each.”
The truth is that it’s impossible to predict the effect a No Labels candidate would have. The group hasn’t announced its candidate-selection process, much less a presidential nominee. What if it chooses a prominent Republican, say, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu or Sen. Mitt Romney? The outcome at the ballot box in 2024 could be wildly different from a poll asking abstractly about an unnamed third candidate.
When CSOR frets that No Labels would eat into Mr. Biden’s support more than Mr. Trump’s, it pretends not to notice that this reflects the 80-year-old incumbent’s political weakness. If Mr. Gephardt raises $3 million, why not forget about No Labels and spend the money trying to convince Mr. Biden to stand down?
The reality exposed even in the CSOR poll is that 21% of the country is unsatisfied enough with Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump to contemplate taking a flyer on a ballot line that’s still in the process of being born. There will be third-party candidates regardless of whether No Labels fields one, as Cornel West is already declared and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to be moving that way.
The opening for this is the fault of the Democratic and Republican parties, not No Labels. Either party could gain an advantage by nominating someone new. If they fail to heed the obvious signals, blame them.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-lab...arty-dick-gephardt-b683094c?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
It seems rather contradictory to complain about the state of our democracy while working to keep the duopoly in place. It's speaking out of both sides of the mouth. Why do people assume this would hurt Joe Biden? Is it a tactic acknowledgement that people don't like him and would only vote for him because of Trump, and if given a third alternative would stay away from Biden?
Polls show large numbers of people don't want a Trump-Biden rematch. Yet that's likely what we'll get.
(and to address what is coming, that Trump is such a threat we can't "afford" to possibly have another candidate is the ultimate cop out. Every election we are told is the most important of our lifetime. Every candidate is a threat to democracy. Before he started to slide there were articles saying DeSantis is worst than Trump. Point being this excuse would be used every election. To me it misses the forest for the trees. Because of the nature of the system we end up with candidates we do not like and are where we are today. Allow a platform like No Labels to present itself and maybe things will change. But that's scary to people I guess.)
Democrats Try to Knock Out No Labels
They want to engineer a Biden-Trump rematch by killing an alternative.
Every poll shows that Americans are all but screaming at the two political parties to offer a presidential choice other than a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The group No Labels has been working to get ballot access for an alternative to meet that market demand, but Democrats in particular are trying to kill the effort in the crib.
President Biden said in a rare recent interview that No Labels has “a democratic right” to do this, but “it’s going to help the other guy.” Now comes a Super Pac trying to raise millions of dollars to assail No Labels, according to a fundraising pitch to prospective donors. What do these folks have against democracy?
Citizens to Save Our Republic, or CSOR, wants donations “to build bipartisan support for a campaign to get No Labels to stand down,” its solicitation email says. “If No Labels moves forward with a third-party effort we will wage a vigorous campaign in swing states, including millions of dollars in advertising, to show voters that No Labels equals Trump and the end of our democracy.”
So a group trying to give voters a democratic alternative is somehow a threat to democracy? We’ve repeatedly keelhauled Mr. Trump for his dereliction on Jan. 6, 2021, his fraud delusions, and much else, but it’s strange to say democracy will end if voters in 2024 cast ballots and elect whomever they want. Perhaps the hyperbole is no surprise, since CSOR looks like a Democratic operation. Its frontman is Dick Gephardt, who spent nearly three decades in the House and ran for President in 1988 and 2004.
Truth in labeling would be to call CSOR the Coalition to Save an Old Retiree, namely Mr. Biden. What the group wants, it says, is to “make the 2024 election a clean referendum on democracy, with one pro-democracy candidate running one-on-one against Donald Trump, the anti-democracy candidate.” It’s doubtful that Mr. Gephardt and company would breathe a sigh of relief for democracy’s sake if Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley ended up as the GOP nominee.
A slide deck to donors lays out the CSOR proposal: Raise $3 million as a budget through December. Try to persuade potential No Labels candidates, including Democrat Joe Manchin and Republican Larry Hogan, to rule out the idea. If No Labels picks a presidential ticket anyway, then the plan is to raise millions more and go to war.
CSOR cites private polling that says a three-way race in 2024 would break 40% for Mr. Trump, 39% for Mr. Biden, and 21% for No Labels. In that survey, the hypothetical alternative took 13 points from Mr. Biden and only eight from Mr. Trump. In 2020, the slide deck adds, Mr. Biden won five key swing states by 1.06 points, on average. According to CSOR’s polling, a third party “could cost Biden an average of 5.6 points in each.”
The truth is that it’s impossible to predict the effect a No Labels candidate would have. The group hasn’t announced its candidate-selection process, much less a presidential nominee. What if it chooses a prominent Republican, say, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu or Sen. Mitt Romney? The outcome at the ballot box in 2024 could be wildly different from a poll asking abstractly about an unnamed third candidate.
When CSOR frets that No Labels would eat into Mr. Biden’s support more than Mr. Trump’s, it pretends not to notice that this reflects the 80-year-old incumbent’s political weakness. If Mr. Gephardt raises $3 million, why not forget about No Labels and spend the money trying to convince Mr. Biden to stand down?
The reality exposed even in the CSOR poll is that 21% of the country is unsatisfied enough with Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump to contemplate taking a flyer on a ballot line that’s still in the process of being born. There will be third-party candidates regardless of whether No Labels fields one, as Cornel West is already declared and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. seems to be moving that way.
The opening for this is the fault of the Democratic and Republican parties, not No Labels. Either party could gain an advantage by nominating someone new. If they fail to heed the obvious signals, blame them.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/no-lab...arty-dick-gephardt-b683094c?mod=hp_opin_pos_1
