The reason Trump is winning if because a large portion of the electorate doesn't believe either party represents them. There's a widespread belief that they've been sold out by folks who are more interested in getting elected than representing the folks back home. Trump's the Maverick candidate who's coopted the GOP.
Is Trump the solution to that? Probably not. But it's unlikely that this country is going to morph into a coalition system of gov with more than two parties.
A Conspiracy Against No Labels
Left-wing organizations may be violating the law in their effort to keep a third party off the ballot.
By William P. Barr, WSJ
Jan. 24, 2024 2:01 pm ET
Russia had higher voter turnout in its last presidential election than America did in 2020. Of course, Russian elections—like those in Iran and other dictatorships—are a sham, because the incumbent party routinely prevents rival parties and candidates from even appearing on ballots.
We haven’t reached that point in America, but we’re closer to it than any American should accept. Recently, No Labels filed a complaint with the Justice Department detailing what the nonprofit described as a “highly coordinated, conspiratorial, partisan, and often unlawful conspiracy,” involving “individuals both inside and outside government,” to interfere with the group’s effort to get on 2024 voting ballots. The complaint also describes brazen efforts to destroy the reputations of No Labels donors and candidates who might run on a No Labels presidential ticket, as well as the livelihoods of No Labels employees and consultants.
The people and organizations—such as Third Way, MoveOn Political Action and the Lincoln Project—who are attacking No Labels claim they are trying to save the republic from a second Trump term, which they think is made more likely by the presence of third-party candidates in the 2024 presidential race.
Although I am a committed Republican and not part of No Labels’ effort, I believe the campaign to disenfranchise the group is profoundly wrong. Poll after poll shows American voters want a choice beyond Joe Biden and Donald Trump. I don’t know whether a No Labels candidate would help or hurt either. But that calculus should make no difference. Blocking ballot access to a qualified organization doesn’t enhance American democracy and civic life. It extinguishes First Amendment rights and makes our elections less meaningful.
Imagine what the progressive left would say if there were a campaign under way, with at least tacit support from the White House, to prevent Americans from registering to vote. The current effort to block No Labels’ ballot access is as outrageous as taking away someone’s right to vote. But instead of fighting this campaign, political operatives on the left are participating in it.
If No Labels’ most serious allegations are true, there is a strong chance laws are being broken, including a civil-rights statute that prohibits individuals from conspiring to oppress, threaten or intimidate any person “in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution.” Even if the campaign against No Labels isn’t illegal, it is profoundly hypocritical and diminishes Americans’ already low trust in our democratic system.
Worse still, the campaign against No Labels is counterproductive. Ever since Mr. Trump won the White House in 2016, his opponents have believed that any tactic is acceptable to get or keep him out of office, whether launching the farcical Russiagate investigation or, more recently, pushing him off the ballot in Colorado and Maine. Mr. Trump’s opponents on the left have taken the same scorched-earth approach to No Labels as well as to other independents seeking to get on the ballot in 2024.
Such efforts actually help Mr. Trump, validating his claim that corrupt elites will stop at nothing to defeat him and the voters he represents. Polls show him well ahead in the Republican primary, with the biggest lead he has ever had over Mr. Biden among general-election voters, including in key swing states.
As a lifelong conservative, I oppose Mr. Trump’s nomination and wish that GOP primary voters would choose someone else. Amid proliferating threats abroad and challenges at home, America needs a president who can move the country forward and rally voters to a durable conservative vision. Mr. Trump isn’t equipped to do that.
But the only morally and constitutionally acceptable way to move on from Mr. Trump is through a free and fair election in 2024, in which every party and every candidate competes without interference. Anything less subverts American democracy and violates American voters’ rights.
Mr. Barr served as U.S. attorney general, 1991-93 and 2019-20.
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