The Choice when there is No Choice

 Today is Presidents Day.  It’s a good day to review the basics of American civics – our form of government and its three separate but equal branches, the role of each branch, the Constitution and its meaning and power in our system, and the meaning of our Constitutional Federal Republic which is a representative democracy - a form of, but not a pure, democracy.

With knowledge comes power.  In terms of the presidency, once we know what we are voting for and why, then we are able to select the best individual for that job.  It is not about for whom we are told to vote or whom we might like or dislike for other reasons.  We then can vote for people who are actually qualified for the job, not who simply hold a label of Democrat or Republican or simply most popular.   The corollary to this is that we know we do not have to, nor should we, vote for anyone whom we believe is not qualified.  That doesn’t mean simply someone we don’t like or someone whose policies we may not agree with, but someone who actually is not qualified. 

In my opinion, in 2024 neither Trump nor Biden is qualified to be elected President of the United States of America.  Biden because his mental and physical abilities are not up to the demands of the office and because he often disregards the importance of some American freedoms.  Trump because since 2020 he has shown a disregard towards the institutions, courts, and Constitution that a President must swear to uphold and protect.

While I can, and have, voted for people whom I am not delighted with, with whom I disagree on some important issues, I have felt that even with faults, even with not being made of superior presidential stock, that these people were at least qualified to hold the office.  I do not feel that way about either of our leading presidential candidates this year.

So, a choice between Biden and Trump, for me (and I believe for many Americans) is really no choice at all.  If one sees it as simply picking the lesser of two evils, one must remember that even the lesser is still evil.   I do not believe that we should choose to go along with, to make such a choice.  And I don’t think that I am the only one in this predicament.

As I think about this today, I also have in mind Alexei Navalny, the Russian dissident who was killed last week in a Russian prison camp above the Arctic Circle.  In reading about him, as well as some of his own statements, interviews, and letters, one thing that is clear is that he believed that one should never give up, never concede to that which one knows is wrong.  Rather than stay safely out of Russia after an assassination attempt, Navalny returned to Russia and faced torture and ultimately death.  But he was not afraid to stand up for truth, for what is right.  His soul remained free.  In an interview in 2022 he stated that “If I am killed, my message is very simple:  Do not give up.”

Compared to what Navalny faced, it is a simple act to refuse to vote for either Trump or Biden.  And yes, that leaves the likelihood that one of the two will be our next president.  That is also true if I do vote for either one.  But if a mass of people were to vote for neither, while it might slightly raise the unlikely possibility that a third candidate would win, it definitely makes a clear statement that neither candidate is acceptable.  And it leaves those voters who choose to vote for no one that they find unqualified with a moral and political and patriotic sense of clarity that can begin to set an example for others: the current state of affairs is not acceptable, is not right, and we will not go along with it.

Our country is a mess.  Perhaps the whole world is a mess.  But it will never be repaired if we just choose to go along and join the mess.  Navalny knew that only too well as he nonetheless chose to face early death as he stood for what is right and set an example, based on dissidents before him, for those to follow that we must do what is right if things are ever to change.  In a letter to a fellow dissident less than a year ago Navalny wrote: “But I continue to believe that we will correct it and one day in Russia there will be what was not. And will not be what was.”

Navalny was aware that this is a long haul and no one person, no one act, no one election, will fix what is wrong, be it in Russia or America or the world.  But he also knew that if no one acts, if we don’t actually engage in the long game, nothing will change.  It is up to us to stand up and do what is right.

An American election is nothing like Russia whose problems Navalny stood up against and died for.  What an easy thing it is for us to say we will not vote for either of the two major candidates because neither is actually qualified to lead our country.  Yet many will not do that, simply doing what they have always done, vote for one of two parties based on any number of reasons that are not connected to the qualifications for, and duties of, the office of president.  Too many will simply concede, go along, and pick one rather than stand up and say neither one is right for America in 2024.  And so, nothing will change, no movement forward will take place, and America will remain the mess it is or devolve further into the hatred and tribal warfare that both candidates encourage.

You may recall the story of the Christmas truce of 1914 where soldiers on both sides of the war, sworn enemies, came out of their trenches, set their weapons aside, and celebrated Christmas together recognizing that they were all just people with the same thoughts and prayers in their souls.  

Think of these people as Americans today.  The politicians, the power hungry, have taught us to hate, have made us enemies of one another, and it is they who are leading us into war with one another, if not with the entire world.  We need to put aside that hatred that they are fomenting and see the humanity in all of our fellow citizens.  We need to see their souls and find our own. 

We need to remember that America is a country of tolerance and compromise and show our leaders that we will not accept those who see it otherwise. And we need to let our current leaders and prospective leaders know that the people of America can and will join together to do what is right for America. If we stop to consider what is good for America as well as for our own selves, and if we vote accordingly and perhaps by voting against both major candidates, we can take a step forward in the long game of doing what is right. 

We have a choice beyond a choice between two evils, beyond accepting that we must vote for one of two men neither of whom should be president.  We can choose to vote for someone else or for no one.  We may end up with Trump or Biden for president (though perhaps not), but even then our votes can help to restrain their actions as well as guide America’s future.

New Party not Third Party

 The two major political parties are not really in sync with and do not represent the majority of Americans today.  But a third party is not the answer; rather, we need a recalibration of the two parties that currently exist.

Through Trump and MAGA, the Republican Party has come to represent a far Right that I and many other Americans do not want to be a part of.  Meanwhile, while it may not be clear what Biden stands for, his Democrat Party seems to represent a Leftist progressive socialism of identity politics, again something which I and many Americans do not want to be a part of. 

Faced with the likelihood that these two parties will choose Trump and Biden as their candidates for 2024, we hear much talk of a third-party candidate.  But, even with two such poor major candidates, we all know that a third party will likely do nothing more than prove to be a spoiler for one of those candidates. 

So where does that leave the Americans who do not find themselves on either the Right or Left extremes, who are basically moderates leaning towards one party on some issues and the other party on others?  The growing number of people labeling themselves as Independents is not a bad thing – these are the people who will vote not simply because someone wears a Red or Blue label but because of the ability and qualifications of the candidates along with the policy agenda that they put forth. 

These Independents and others who feel in one way or another abandoned by both Democrats and Republicans, need a party.  Not a third party, not a one issue party, not a spoiler party, but a real party that has the size and resources to truly contend for the high offices of this land, including President.

If such a party could rise and replace one of the current two major parties, I believe that the remaining party, be it Democrat or Republican, would, in order to survive and be competitive, move more toward its moderate aspects, which, in both parties once was characterized by bipartisanship and negotiation rather than the current divisiveness and hate. 

I believe that two such parties would provide us with two far better candidates from which to choose.  With two such parties we could perhaps find our way as Americans to come together again as one country and to work not against each other as enemies but together as allies who hold different views but want to solve the same problems. 

Our system is not set up for three parties, but it demands that the two parties we have be representative of more than just the extremes of our society and campaign on more substance than simply that they are not their allegedly evil opponent.  This could, perhaps, be the election where we could begin to build that strong replacement party.  We already have some strong possible candidates who might represent it:  Bobby Kennedy, currently running as an Independent; Joe Manchin, not yet a candidate but a strong contender for the No Labels party; Nikki Haley, currently running for the Republican nomination but whose supporters, in reality, are the moderates of both parties as well as Independents.  I am sure there are others out there who, if it did not seem futile, might be interested. 

But no third party or third candidate has a chance if the people do not give them one. We should not assume that we have no choice but Trump or Biden: neither is yet the official nominee of his party.  With concerted effort to deny one or both the necessary delegates to become that nominee, by voting for a different candidate in the primaries, then we the people can perhaps supplant one or both candidates with someone more representative of the moderate rather than the extremes of their respective party, and in so doing take a major step in replacing at least one of the two parties with one that is more representative of more Americans.

I think this could be managed against either Trump or Biden, either the Republican or the Democrat party, though I think it is more likely at this time to work in the Republican Party.  There is anti-Trump and/or anti-MAGA sentiment from both moderate Democrats and Republicans as well as Independents, and there is a viable candidate currently running along with Trump for the party’s nomination.  Imagine if many primary voters, rather than assuming the nomination has already been wrapped up, were to vote against Trump in the primaries:  they actually might effectuate a different nominee.

If this replacement effort were in regard to Trump, realistically Haley would likely rise as the nominee.  I believe she could and would move the Party more towards the center.  But it could just as easily be some other more moderate write-in candidate who would dethrone Trump or Biden. 

Assuming it were the Republicans who replaced the presumptive nominee with a more center-focused candidate, the Party would begin moving away from the quite frightening far Right of MAGA towards a more moderate center.  I believe this would push a similar move of the Democrat Party away from its Socialist Left toward its more traditional liberal base.  We actually might end up with a two-party system that would give us the kinds of candidates we were once used to in this country:  strong and wise statesmen not out to destroy their opposition but to work with them to find ways to lead America forward.

Unlikely as this may seem, it is possible.  But the people have to stand up and do this.  If they continue to cower behind the demands of the party leaders on both sides, we get exactly what we do not want but what we will deserve:  a country full of hate that continues to destroy itself from within.