Other parties and candidates 2024 - Greens, Libertarians, etc.

[lpetrich]

Let's look at how other parties are doing, parties other than the Democratic and Republican ones. Many such parties seem mainly to exist to support vanity Presidential runs, which is why I'm also mentioning candidates.

A good sign of support for vanity runs is lack of interest in other offices, like Congressional ones or state ones or local ones. Like this: Candidates - Unity2020 I found zero interest in Congress, states, or localities. Only the Presidency.

The opposite sort of party is the Working Families Party, with its support for numerous Congressional, state, and local candidates. Its main involvement with Presidential runs is to endorse other parties' candidates, and it has never had one of its own.

Presidential candidates, 2024 - Ballotpedia has a big list of candidates who have filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for President. But none of them look familiar to me.

 

[lpetrich]

Opinion | If an Alternative Candidate Is Needed in 2024, These Folks Will Be Ready - The New York Times by David Brooks

What happens if the 2024 election is between Donald Trump and somebody like Bernie Sanders? What happens if the Republicans nominate someone who is morally unacceptable to millions of Americans while the Democrats nominate someone who is ideologically unacceptable? Where do the millions of voters in the middle go? Does Trump end up winning as voters refuse to go that far left?

The group No Labels has been working quietly over the past 10 months to give Americans a third viable option. The group calls its work an insurance policy. If one of the parties nominates a candidate acceptable to the center of the electorate, then the presidential operation shuts down. But if both parties go to the extremes, then there will be a unity ticket appealing to both Democrats and Republicans to combat this period of polarized dysfunction.

So his only objection to the Left is that it's icky. Or something.

No Labels is a PAC financed with secretive "dark money", a PAC that supports the Problem Solvers Caucus in Congress.

NL plans $70M, and has already raised $46M. To be spent on:

1. Getting on the ballot in all 50 states and in DC.
2. Creating a database of people who might support a NL candidacy. That's 1/3 of Trump voters and 1/5 of Biden voters from 2020.
3. Finding a policy agenda that such people might like.
4. Creating a campaign infrastructure.

The group has identified 23 states where they believe a unity ticket could win a plurality of the vote, including Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Minnesota and Colorado. If the ticket gained a plurality in those 23 states, that would give its standard-bearer 279 electoral votes and the presidency.

...
The group has come up with a series of both/and positions on major issues: comprehensive immigration reform with stronger borders and a path to citizenship for DACA immigrants; American energy self-sufficiency while transitioning to cleaner sources; No guns for anyone under 21 and universal background checks; moderate abortion policies with abortion legal until about 15 weeks.

...
The people who are volunteering for this emphasize that they are not leaving their parties. This is not an effort to create a third party, like Andrew Yang’s effort. This is a one-off move to create a third option if the two major parties abandon the middle in 2024.

DB concedes some problems with this candidacy, like drawing more votes from Democrats than Republicans. But a NL activist notes that “I find it easier to find Republicans who want to pull away from Trump than it is to find Democrats who want to pull away from Biden.”

The second danger is that the No Labels candidates fail to generate any excitement at all. Millions of Americans claim to dislike the two major parties, but come election time, they hold their noses and support one in order to defeat the party they hate more.

What a fate. For this effort to collapse because many people find its candidate to be totally boring.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

I strongly suspect that strong distaste for the GOP will make voting third party hit new lows. A third party vote in a swing state may act as a spoiler and elect a GOP extremist. The Ralph Nader effect may be a reminder why third party voting can be very unwise.

 

[lpetrich]

I like these responses.

Don Moynihan on Twitter: "Incredible stuff from David Brooks: If America had to choose between a proto-authoritarian and someone indistinguishable from a centrist European politician, we would have to break the glass and support an obvious grift to separate rich people from their money (pic link)" / Twitter

Bernie Sanders as a European centrist?

brent loves Amtrak on Twitter: "Classic David Brooks piece where he equates Bernie to Trump and insists he is a similar danger to the country.
It’s incredible that the NYT continues to employ rich hacks like him with negative IQs." / Twitter

Bernie Sanders lost twice in the Democratic Presidential primaries, but he never encouraged a mob of his followers to attack the Democratic Party headquarters and demand that the party make their the candidate for President.

Ali Harb on Twitter: "So there is an ongoing effort for a centrist presidential campaign to pull Democratic votes if a progressive is the nominee in 2024, which would ensure a Trump victory. Of course, David Brooks is an early cheerleader. (link)" / Twitter

One has to ask what kind of candidate might split the Republican vote. One who also claims to be a Trumpie?

David Rothkopf on Twitter: "@donmoyn Interestingly if you look closely at the No Labels label, you will see they are about 30 years past their sell-by date. What they consider unacceptably progressive views (on say healthcare, guns, tax fairness, the environment, etc.) are held by the vast majority of Americans." / Twitter

 

[lpetrich]

I strongly suspect that strong distaste for the GOP will make voting third party hit new lows. A third party vote in a swing state may act as a spoiler and elect a GOP extremist. The Ralph Nader effect may be a reminder why third party voting can be very unwise.

Not only him but also Jill Stein.