A repeat of the 2020 election looks to be in store
During boring meetings in 1956, one man doodled. Sick of partisan fighting and the same names leading the two major parties, he dreamed of a third grouping. He had even thought of a name for it: “Americans for Modern Republicanism.” This man was Dwight D. Eisenhower, and he had just been reelected president by a landslide, getting 35 million votes to his opponent’s 25 million.
Biographer Stephen Ambrose wrote about Eisenhower’s longing to create a new voice in American politics and how forces beyond his control intervened. Richard Nixon, a GOP establishment mainstay, was nominated for president in 1960 and again in 1968. It was a sign that “business as usual” was here to stay.
Political observers on both sides of the aisle have fantasized over the past year about a similar revolution. The slates of presidential candidates in both parties seemed at first to hold out some promise, but that quickly petered out. A repeat of the 2020 election looks to be in store.
Let’s start with the Republicans. Even after skipping the first Republican presidential debate and facing a series of indictments, former president Donald Trump still cleared 50 percent in an Emerson poll in late August, leaving all his challengers in the dust. Governors, senators, ambassadors, entrepreneurs — whatever the job title, they can’t seem to overcome Trump’s lead. With President Biden the oldest president in American history, the Democratic Party has faced similar questions about who may or may not be on the ticket this year. During the long waiting period for Biden to declare his reelection bid, speculation mounted that someone else might take the front-runner role.
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