No threat to our republic

Ever notice that the Left doesn't like the center siphoning its vote?

I had to laugh when I read this:

No Labels is planning to run a spoiler candidate in the 2024 presidential election in order to deny any candidate the 270 electoral votes needed to be elected. That would send the decision about our next president to the MAGA-controlled House of Representatives and clear the way for a second Trump presidency. Make sure your community knows just how dangerous No Labels’ plan would be for our democracy.

I’ve been through ten Presidential elections as a voter, and aside from the faithless electors who vote for random people because they didn’t like something about the Republican or Democrat, third parties have garnered exactly zero electoral votes in those elections. In 2024, I’m sure that streak - which has run since George Wallace won five Southern states in 1968 - will continue regardless of who runs from No Labels or any other party, since it’s very unlikely that someone other than Joe Biden (or whoever the Democrats nominate) or Donald Trump (or some other Republican) will win any states.

The closest we came to someone other than an R or D winning a state in my electoral lifetime was Ross Perot in 1992, but he came up short despite my vote. (Perot came closest to winning an electoral vote in the state of Maine, a jurisdiction with a long streak of supporting independents. He was just 4.6 percentage points out of the money for one of the two single-district votes and 8.33 points in arrears statewide, his closest finish.)

Apparently these liberals are worried that Joe Biden will remain as unpopular as he’s become in recent polling - cratering to as low as a 33% approval rating - while a centrist ex-Democrat, in particular Joe Manchin, will run and siphon votes that would have gone against Donald Trump out of the Biden column. I notice that no one (except Republicans) seems to object to the Libertarian Party running because the perception is there that they hurt the GOP. But Democrats will work to take any left-leaning party out of the way - heck, they blame the Green Party for not one, but two electoral losses (2016 with Jill Stein and 2000 with Ralph Nader.)

Yet there’s no guarantee that the House will be a MAGA-leaning House anyway. Their currently slim margin may well be vaporized by Democrat gerrymandering in New York, meaning the House might be held by the Democrats. And why do you think they’re trying to put baby murder on the ballot wherever they can?

I really have no issue with maximizing the number of people on the ballot, although at times it works against our interests. But if they really wanted to make elections more meaningful, they would retain the Electoral College with one major difference: adopt a Nebraska or Maine style of awarding electoral votes from each Congressional district nationwide, with two for the statewide victor from each state. Now it wouldn’t do us a whole lot of good in Delaware since our state IS the Congressional district, but imagine how that would affect states considered “safe” for either party. In 2020, Donald Trump would have still eked seven electoral votes apiece out of California and New York and even one in Maryland, but Joe Biden would have grabbed 13 votes in Texas and 11 in Florida. However, instead of Biden winning all 10 electoral votes in Wisconsin, Trump would have had a 6-4 advantage there since he won 6 of the 8 Congressional districts.

America is about a 50-50 nation, as we’ve had pluralities win the election a few times in the last 30-odd years (2016, 2000, 1996, 1992) and no one has won a victory over about 53%. Yet there have been times the winner picked up 60 to 70 percent of the electoral vote thanks to a “winner-take-all” system used in 48 states. I just think the other 2 have the right idea.

As for No Labels, considering it’s been around since 2010 and has never actually run a Presidential candidate, I’ll believe it when I see it. Apparently, though, they have ballot access now in 12 states (four won by Biden, eight won by Trump) but getting all 50 is likely a chore they can’t complete in time. (They are about 200 voter registrations short in Delaware, although to their credit they’ve been at it a month and have hardly worked outside Kent County, which is the smallest of the three. So they will likely make it in Delaware.)

Really, the only thing No Labels can do wrong is run Larry Hogan for president.

Until next time, remember you can Buy Me a Coffee since I have a page there.