For months now, polls have said that many American voters did not want the 2024 presidential election to be a rematch of 2020: Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump.
It is true that nominating two flawed and elderly men may not be the finest moment in our politics. However, Biden and Trump were the clear primary winners. If “We the People” didn’t want them, we had our chance and we blew it.
A group called No Labels has been on a strident quest for a bipartisan ticket, but a number of reasonably prominent politicians have turned down the offer. That led to an interesting column on the Politico website, where writer Alexander Burns explained how No Labels was hunting for a president among the wrong group of people.
Burns said that as a college student in 2008, he went to see a campus speaker who was part of a group trying to set up a third-party run in that year’s presidential election. He freely admitted that he went to the event “because the Unity08 pitchman was the actor Sam Waterston and I love ‘Law & Order’.”
He doesn’t remember much about the event, but, “What I remember is meeting District Attorney Jack McCoy.” Which, true enough, would be pretty cool, but how does that apply to choosing a president?
Nevertheless, Burns thinks Unity08 was onto something that No Labels has overlooked.
“Enlisting a conventional politician with mainstream views is no way to upend the basic structure of American politics,” he wrote. “The evidence from the United States and around the world is overwhelming on this point. The most successful political disrupters are flamboyantly different in their style, ideas or both.”
It’s true. Trump himself immediately comes to mind from the 2016 election, as does Ross Perot in 1992. And FDR in 1932. There also is Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was a popular comedian before becoming a serious leader as his country stood up to the Russian invasion.
Burns said the No Labels “fantasy ticket” of Joe Manchin and Mitt Romney “looks bloodless and gray,” and could never deliver a body blow to America’s two-party system. So he came up with three non-politician candidates who might.
The most serious one on his list is self-help guru Ramit Sethi, an author, rising Netflix star and authority on checkbook issues that affect most voters. Burns believes the cost of living will remain a key issue in American politics for years, and someone like Sethi could address it honestly.
Next up is comedian Dave Chappelle, who Burns says has a “a developed sensibility about the grievances that animate a range of disaffected Americans, including what he calls ‘the poor whites’ who vote for Trump.”
Finally, he suggests “a genius of the screen who is instantly recognizable to every American of voting age”— Julia Louis-Dreyfus of “Seinfeld” and “Veep” fame.
Calling her “America’s Zelenskyy,” he said her “Veep” character presented the absurdity and corruption of American politics more convincingly than any populist ever could.
OK, time for a reality check. Do we really want the guy who played lovable crack addict Tyrone Biggums in the Oval Office? Or, if “Elaine Benes” was elected, would Kramer be secretary of state? Would mystery man Art Vandelay be in charge of the CIA?
By proposing informed celebrities for president, Burns is saying that professional politicians aren’t being honest with us. He’s right. That doesn’t automatically qualify Sethi, Chappelle or Louis-Dreyfus for high office, but it is a signal to elected officials that We the People see they’re not serious about solving the nation’s problems.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
