The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
Current polls declare that ex-President Trump has a small lead over current-President Biden. However, neither candidate is close to being truly popular with the American electorate.
Why would the parties support either of these politically unpalatable candidates? The overarching answer is that it was not “the parties” that chose them; it was “the people” who did. Primaries are the primary explanation for why we have two old unpopular men.
Up until the late 1940s, delegates to the national conventions of the Republicans and Democrats decided their presidential candidates. “The people” had no influence on the ultimate choices. National conventions were important events. Noted politicians made impassioned appeals to the delegates to vote for them to become presidential candidates. No one knew who would be chosen until the conventions made those decisions.
As time went on, political leaders and citizens of the various states began to insist on holding presidential primaries in their states. They wanted “the people” of their state to decide who would have what percentage of their state’s primary votes, and those delegates were required to vote for “their” candidate.
This pattern has evolved into a situation where the public almost always knows who the two presidential candidates will be before the parties’ national conventions. Therefore the every-four-year party clambakes evoke as much excitement as talking about who won last year’s World Series or Super Bowl.
Elected partisan representatives at all levels of government should be the ones who decide who their presidential candidates should be. Even though the USA is a democracy, and in a democracy “the people” vote on which people get into which offices, “the people” are not sufficiently aware to know which candidates of each party will best embody the political principles of the two parties in the ensuing campaign.
In 2016, would already-elected Republicans in local, state, or national offices have nominated a 66-year-old man who had inherited a real estate empire from his father and had achieved fame as a reality-TV host, but had never served in any public office of any sort, and was already highly controversial? In 2020, would already-elected Democrats in local, state, or national offices have nominated a 74-year-old man who had served in national offices for nearly half a century but had never been especially popular within the Democratic Party? In 1964 would Republican professionals have nominated Barry Goldwater? In 1972 would Democratic professionals have nominated George McGovern? In 2024 would professionals of either party nominate Biden or Trump?
“The people” nominated Donald Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and they nominated Joe Biden in 2020 and 2024. If Trump is re-elected in November, it will guarantee four years of utter disaster. If Biden is elected, it will guarantee four years of our nation wondering if he will be physically or mentally able to complete his term with distinction or disgrace. And alas, “the people” will have spoken. – June 19, 2024
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.