There have been plenty of post-mortems rushed into publication since Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis folded his presidential campaign and kissed the ring of GOP frontrunner (and presumptive nominee) Donald Trump. The conventional wisdom hardened soon afterwards: former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley can't win, will bow out, and hope 2028 treats her campaign better.
The same goes for DeSantis, who is pegged to return to Florida and repair what once seemed like a formidable political operation in time for his own 2028 reappearance on the national stage.
Perhaps. There's always the next time for relatively young, obviously ambitious, politicians who insist they have what it takes to lead the nation. Those plans will sort themselves out in the months ahead – with a clear understanding that if Trump loses in November, the field will be wide open four years from now.
As those webs are spun in corridors far removed from the public eye, it looks like we're left with a rematch of 2020.
The race no one outside the orbits of Trump and Joe Biden wants.
There is some history at work in such a match-up. In the head-to-head 1892 contest between former president Grover Cleveland and incumbent president Benjamin Harrison, Cleveland won – convincingly – and became the first and only president to serve non-consecutive terms in office. An electoral wild card in that race: the Populist Party, which won a handful of electoral votes (though not enough to sway the outcome).
There was the more complicated three-way race in 1912 between former President Teddy Roosevelt (running as a progressive “Bull Moose”), incumbent Republican William Howard Taft, and Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson. Taft lost – handily – while Roosevelt finished second to Wilson.
But that was a difference America wrestling with far different issues and a with markedly superior political class to the one we have today. Cleveland was called the last conservative Democrat, one who actually believed in limits to federal power and was aware of the dangers of populism. He was unique in that he won the popular vote in three consecutive presidential elections – 1892, 1888 (when he lost the electoral vote to Harrison), and 1884.
On those scores, neither Trump nor Biden can hold a candle to Mr. Cleveland. But that's immaterial to their current motivations and calculations. They are two old men running for the sake of vanity…and, in the process, doing the nation a profound disservice.
My expectations for the months ahead are the two major parties running low, dishonest campaigns. So low and dishonest, that it's possible turnout craters in November.
Buckle up.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
