‘No Labels’ Decides Against Fielding Formal Third-Party Candidate

Republicans and Democrats rejoice: the group “No Labels” will not be fielding a presidential candidate.

Not that the group’s leaders didn’t audition any number of has-beens and also-rans for the job. Those are two commodities American politics has in abundance. What the group lacked, the Wall Street Journal notes, is an issue that could both motivate someone to accept a third party bid, and a critical mass of voters to make that candidate a legitimate contender. Think Ross Perot and the populist surge of the 1990s.

While few will notice that No Labels won’t be fielding a presidential ticket, none of us will be able to escape the unpalatable choice between the aged, cranky and, in their own ways, profoundly dangerous nominees from Team Red and Team Blue. As the Journal writes:

Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are in a codependent political relationship. Each imagines that he’s the only candidate who can defeat the other, when the truth is that each is being propped up by the other’s flaws.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is no good alternative. He’s a vessel for the discontented, a man of the left who feints to the populist right. Unlike No Labels, Mr. Kennedy apparently doesn’t mind being a spoiler, but which side he’ll hurt more is hard to guess and the polls offer conflicting evidence.

It’s going to be a mean and ugly campaign, and a perilous four years of high polarization, no matter who wins. On the bright side, at least the winner can only serve one more term.

That last bit is perhaps the only true salve awaiting us at the end of this election season. The winner will only be able to occupy the Oval Office, and our national conversation, for four years. After that, both major parties will have to nominate someone new, different, and we can sincerely hope, better than Biden or Trump.

That should be a very low and easy bar to clear. But I’m less sanguine in the ability, never mind the desire, of party regulars to find those fresh, new faces. Republicans were given that opportunity this year. They refused to take it. Democrats had chances to move in new directions in 2016 and 2020. Both times, they stuck with the golden oldies of campaigns past. There was a slight buzz that Biden would bow out gracefully this year rather than allow ego and vanity to propel him on yet another national campaign.

Fat chance.

This brings us back to wondering what might lie ahead in 2028, when neither Trump nor Biden will be available. Might that be the opportunity for a No Labels type of exercise to make headway? Perhaps, but only if either of the two major parties collapses in the next four years.

And the system is currently built to ensure that both will be around for a very long time. At least as slots on the ballot. Whether either party will be able to nominate a non-zombie candidate four years from now is an open question. 

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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Norman Leahy

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Norman Leahy has written about national and Virginia politics for more than 30 years with outlets ranging from The Washington Post to BearingDrift.com. A consulting writer, editor, recovering think tank executive and campaign operative, Norman lives in Virginia.

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